I'm not safe
by ShubbaBANG
Summary: The Storm Hawks were usually prepared for anything. Except random mentally unstable girls with nightmares about endangering their Sky Knight. But hey, its not that bad. Okay. The summary is very very bad. But the story is pretty funny. OC involved.
1. Someone doesn't know how to fly

I'm not sure where I intend on going with this story. I didn't have internet for 20 hours, so I started to write this. Hopefully I can stick with it and get it finished. This will probably be the longest story I'll ever write in my life. And yes, it does include my OC. I'm usually not fond of OC's, but I finally jumped the bandwagon. If you want to see what my OC looks like, even though it's described in the story, go to my profile page and copy and paste the link at the top. It wont let me post links here.

Okay. On with the story.

I'll warn you that there is some swearing in this story, which is the reason for the rating. But anyways, hope you like it.

And by the way, I don't own Storm Hawks.

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><p>"I'm. So. BORED."<p>

Piper only briefly glanced up at him, then continued to read.

"What are you reading?"

"A book."

"Well DUH."

No response from Piper.

"I want to go do something!"

Again, no response.

"Why is there nothing to do on this ship?"

"Finn, for the love of atmos, shut up!"

"But there's nothing to do!"

"Go find something to entertain yourself then!"

"Like what? There's nothing fun on the ship, especially you!"

"Go away!"

"Make me."

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><p>Aerrow bent down over his skimmer, an odd shaped wrench in hand. This was how it had been since they had entered the Farside. Days full of idleness, irritation, and waiting. It seemed all of them were on edge, Piper especially. Not only had they not seen any sign of Cyclonis, but they hadn't landed the ship in what seemed like a month. All of them, minus Finn, who at the time couldn't have cared less, had agreed that until they had proof of whether or not the native people were friendly, they would stay away from danger. Judging by the technology that Master Cyclonis had brought into Atmos, these were people you didn't want to mess with.<p>

Still, it was as if there had been a rain cloud over all of them. Aerrow had given up on daily training long ago, and now most of the team were filling their days with leisurely activities. So leisurely, that it was almost as if the things they had once enjoyed had become chores.

Sighing, he continued to loosen a bolt that he had tightened not to long ago. It had become a habit of his. He would spend most of the day taking his skimmer apart, and the next day he would put it back together. Which, when he thought about it, was not very smart considering what would happen if they were attacked and his skimmer was a pile of loosened metal. Nevertheless, he continued to loosen the bolts, setting each piece down next to him.

It was at this time that he heard a girlish scream.

Knowing that this might be the only action he was going to get all day, he stood, wiped his hands on his uniform, and headed over to the source of the squealing.

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><p>"Finn, you're really pissing me off, you know that?"<p>

"It's not my fault you're so boring!"

"Boring?"

"Uh, guys-"

Piper turned sharply towards him. "Aerrow, am I boring?"

Aerrow stood there for a moment.

"Uhh...no?"

Piper whipped her head around to stick her tongue out at Finn, who then mimicked her, his face scrunched up. Aerrow let his eyes rest on the ceiling, disappointed that it wasn't more exciting. Not that he wanted them to fight, he was hoping that it would've involved some action. Like jumping in between them to stop them from killing each other. Again, not that he liked to do that, but still.

"I'm guessing we still haven't run into anything?"

Piper, the one sticking her tongue out at Finn in triumph, quickly looked over to Aerrow, suddenly very mature. Although Aerrow knew her answer by the look on her face, he waited for her reply.

"Nothing. It's like Cyclonis just vanished. I'm starting to worry that she somehow got back to Atmos, if that s even possible."

Aerrow thought about this for a minute. He knew one thing, they knew as much as Cyclonis did about the Farside. But what if she had discovered another way through the two worlds? It was possible that she-

He shook his head. Having days without excitement was starting to make him doubt too much. He opened his mouth the speak, but was interrupted by an ear splitting ring. It took him a moment to realize that it was the siren, and all three jumped into action, sprinting towards the deck, meeting Junko and Radarr on the way.

"What is it Stork?"

"Is it her?"

"Is anyone with her?"

"Who is it?"

Waving off the onslaught of questions, he pointed straight out in front of the Condor. Squinting, Aerrow tried to make out the shape that seemed to be jerking its way towards them. It's movements were sloppy, something Cyclonis would never be. It took him a second to make out a human shape on...was that?

"A skimmer? Do they even use Skimmers here?" Aerrow asked Piper, who in response shrugged and shook her head.

"Kinda reminds me of how Perry was driving Piper's heliscooter that one time when they switched places." Finn said as he titled his head. Junko, next to him, nodded in agreement.

"Well whatever it is, it seems pretty intent on getting onto our ship."

The five of them let Storks comment sink in. Realizing what that meant, they took off towards the hanger bay.

And of course, Aerrow's ride was a pile of metal. Mentally smacking himself, he directed Piper and Junko to go out and see if this visitor was a threat or not. Both of them nodded, and within seconds, the mechanic and navigator launched into the cold sky of the Farside. As they got closer, Piper studied the 'enemy'.

"It's a girl!"

Junko looked over at Piper in bewilderment. "What?"

Taking a risk, she closed the gap between herself and the mystery girl. She could finally see that not only was it a human girl, but she also looked to be drifting in and out of consciousness. Switching to rescue mode, she pulled up beside the other skimmer and latched her hand onto the wing, being careful not to let its sudden movements rip her hand away. She could see now that the girl had lost all consciousness, and was now slumped over the controls. Reaching out, she grabbed the closest thing she could, which happened to be the girls foot. Silently apologizing, she yanked towards her, causing the girl to slip off the skimmer and hang in the air, limbs flailing like a rag doll.

"Junko! I need help!"

Piper felt the foot begin to slide from her hand. _Come on, hurry up!_

It was then that she noticed the foot was pulled from her hand, and she looked down to see Junko holding the girl bridal style, looking up at her in concern. Piper sighed.

"We've got to go."

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><p>"How do you think she got here?" Finn wondered aloud, knowing that no one else would have a clue.<p>

"What if it's Cyclonis in disguise again?" Stork backed up from the girl as he said this, a look of disgust on his face.

They had propped the girl up against the wall, Piper currently checking her head for any sign of injury. The girl had brown hair, all up in a ponytail that seemed to spark like a firework in the back of her head. On top of this were blue tinted goggles, ones that looked as if they were meant more for show than for an actual purpose. Her outfit consisted of a blue top with other shades of blue patched in, and sleeves that cut off at the elbows. Her pants had the same design, although they went all the way down to her boots. Aerrow had taken note of the fact that in her belt, she had two guns with nozzles that looked as if they shot energy blasts.

"Well, she has weapons on her. But I don't see any crystals." Aerrow finally said after a few moments.

Piper nodded as he said this and straightened up. "She doesn't look very dangerous at all."

Finn picked his head up suddenly. "Wait...if she's here...then wouldn't that mean that she would've had to have gone through another entrance to the Farside?"

All of them froze. Finn was right, this girl didn't look like she belonged in the Farside at all. Somewhere, there was another way to get back to Atmos. And this girl could help them find it! Smiling, Aerrow began to speak, only to, once again, be interrupted by a noise. But it wasn't the blaring sound of the alarm. It was a much quieter sound. All of them looked down at the girl as she started to sit herself up more, not bothering to open her eyes. Stork sought cover behind Junko, peeking over his shoulder. Radarr found his way onto Aerrow's shoulder, but he was much more curious than scared.

The girl finally opened one eye, which Aerrow noted were also brown, and looked around the room, bringing a hand to her head as if to steady it. Finally opening the other eye, she stared up at them, lifting an eyebrow. It was a weird expression, one that looked like a mix of being unimpressed but also confused. Skeptical was probably the word for it. She blinked a few more times, and began to speak.

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><p>I'm going to be going into point of views. I found that I write things much better in first person instead of third, so expect to see more of that. This story kinda has a lot in it. I'm still debating on whether or not I should add romance. As I add more chapters, I'll be putting a poll up about it.<p>

But yup. Hope you guys liked it! Don't forget to review! :D


	2. What kind of name is that?

Alright. Now we get to see more of my OC. Again, there is swearing, so if you don't like that kind of stuff, sorry. :(

And again, I do not own Storm Hawks.

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><p>"Damn. I got knocked out." Her voice was low for a girl, but had a tone of amusement in it that all of them couldn't quite understand.<p>

Piper took this as a good sign, and decided that she was friendly. Standing up, she smiled warmly.

"Hi! I'm Piper, navigator of the Storm Hawks!" She then continued on to introduce the others. "This is Aerrow, the Sky Knight." Aerrow let one corner of his mouth turn up in a lopsided smile. "And Junko, our mechanic, Finn our sharpshooter and nuisance," This earned a glare from the blond. "Stork, our helmsmen, and Radarr, our uh...mission specialist." Finished, she turned towards the girl again, expecting a name. The girl continued to look at them with an uninterested look on her face.

"Kay...My name is Shubbz, and I'm the smartass of the do absolutely nothing squadron." She gave a sly smile, as if satisfied with her own joke. Junko blinked at her, not quite understanding it, while Finn smiled a bit. Piper was still stuck on the girls name, mentally deciding that it was the weirdest name she'd ever heard.

"Oh...Okay...Well...Shubbz...we saw you kinda..well..." Aerrow faltered, trying to see how he could explain this to her. Luckily, Finn stepped in, and began to explain it in a much more to-the-point way.

"We saw you flying like a crazy person towards our ship, so we thought we'd go out and see what was going on, cept mister stutter over here," he pointed over his shoulder at Aerrow, who rolled his eyes. "had taken his skimmer apart for no reason, so these two," he switched his pointing to Junko and Piper, "went out to either ask what was wrong or kick the crap out of you, and then you were all like dead looking, so we brought you over onto our ship, and then you woke up. And also, your skimmer went bye bye." He finished this off with a smile.

The others watched her as she let it sink in. "Well...that sucks." Again, with a smile. She then got up and dusted herself off. Looking around again, she began to walk around, as if inspecting the ship. Her expression had once again regained the look of complete disinterest, and she headed towards the door that lead to the hallway. Not sure what to make of this, the others followed her.

"Hey!"

Stopping, she turned around to look at Aerrow with an expression that said _what do you want?_ She crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one foot, looking impatient.

"I know you just hit your head and all, but this is our ship. We want to ask you a few questions first." He said in the sternest voice possible. Her face suddenly brightened, so quickly that Aerrow almost suspected that she had trapped them or something.

"Ask away!" she replied, all too enthusiastic.

Aerrow thought for a moment, choosing his words carefully.

"How did you get here?"

She looked at him as if he was stupid. "Uh, my skimmer? The skimmer that is now lost because of you guys?" Again with the smile.

"No, no, I mean how did you get to the Farside?"

"Through a portal."

Piper stepped in, deciding that she would get farther with questions than Aerrow was. "Where was this portal, do you remember?"

The girl looked up at the ceiling in thought. After a minute, she looked back down again."I have no idea. Can't really remember how I got here to tell you the truth. One minute, I was in Atmos, the next, I'm dodging these weird looking dragon things!"

"Okay, do you know who Cyclonis is?"

The girl scoffed. "Nope. I just happened to live on a terra that she destroyed, but nope. Have no idea who she is."

Piper, sensing the sarcasm, was about to lift an eyebrow in annoyance, until she realized what she had just said.

"Oh I'm so sorry about tha-"

"Don't be. The place was a mess anyways. I was the only one that lived there. Gotta say though, I kinda miss having a house, even if the one I had was a piece of crap." With this she laughed, and the others stared at her in a mix of amazement and confusion.

"So you guys don't mind if I chill here for a few days?" It wasn't a question exactly, more like a statement. Aerrow wasn't sure if he was annoyed or confused by her attitude. He tried to see the bad side of letting her stay, but couldn't find a good reason. This girl was armed, but not once had she acted hostile to them in any way. She hadn't thanked them either though, but that didn't mean she was an enemy.

"I guess you can. It's pretty boring around here though ." He trailed off, glancing at her guns again.

Shubbz plopped down on a chair next to the table, and much like Finn had done many times, kicked her feet up and reclined in the chair. It looked as if she had already made herself at home. She reached toward one of her guns, making Aerrow stiffen. Instead of shooting it though, she twirled it around on her finger carelessly. She didn't seem to take note of the fact that she could hit the trigger of it. Aerrow thought of telling her the dangers of doing that, but decided not to. He still didn't know her well enough, and didn't want to give her reason to use the gun she twirled in her hand now.

"I think I can entertain myself." One corner of her mouth twitched upward in a smile. Although to Aerrow it looked like she had just thought a plan, which did not comfort him at all. "So is the little quiz over or do you still have questions?"

"Not quite."

Everyone turned to look at Stork. His expression was unreadable as he took cautious steps over to the girl, though still keeping a safe distance between them.

"Do you have any highly contagious diseases that we should be worried about or have you already infested the ship with your deadly germs? And if so, tell us what it is so I can plan my slow and painful death accordingly." She lifted her eyebrow, giving the merb a confused but slightly amused look. She leaned forward and suddenly took on a much darker smile than the ones they had seen before.

"And what if I do?"

Aerrow had never seen the merb turn so white. He had never seen him faint that fast either. He switched his gaze from the crumpled merb to Shubbz, who was still leaning forward, but now using her gun to poke at Storks unconscious body.

"Did he die or something?" Much to Aerrow's annoyance, she said this with a smile, like she thought the whole thing was hilarious. He couldn't see what was so funny about scaring their pilot half to death. He nodded over to Junko, who nodded back in understanding and scooped the merb up, carrying him off to the deck. Aerrow looked over at Shubbz again, only to see an empty chair.

"Why do I get the feeling that this girl is going to be a pain in the ass?" He said, turning to face Piper and Finn. Both of them seemed as bewildered as him, although Finn looked more amused.

"She's not my favorite person either, Aerrow. But she knows where another portal is!"

"She said she didn't remember though". Aerrow reminded her. Piper shook her head.

"I know she did, but maybe it's because she hit her head. Maybe she could point us in the right direction, then hopefully, as we get closer, she'll remember more."

"Besides, she's funny!" Both of them shot Finn a look, who quickly went silent. What bothered Aerrow the most was that he couldn't tell what her intentions were. It was possible that she didn't have anything planned at all and was just traveling. Still, there was something off about her and the way she had answered the questions. Maybe keeping her around was safer in the long run, it would give him more time to figure this girl out.

"We've got to find her. I don't want her wandering around our ship." Finn and Piper nodded and the three of them split up to search for their guest.

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><p><strong>Shubbz POV<strong>

Not like I had been on many ships before, but let me tell you, this thing was a piece of crap. Looked like they found it in the wastelands and just decided to fix it up enough to get off the ground. I shouldn't really complain though. I'd rather be in a ship than on a skimmer out in the open where I can get my head knocked around.

I had decided that it was time for a little exploring. It wasn't my ship, but hey, if I was gonna be staying here for a while, might as well get to know these people. And that meant snooping around in their rooms. I'm sure they wouldn't mind.

I made my first stop at well, a door. All the doors looked the same, so I had no idea if the room I was going to step into would be the room I wanted. But I went in anyways.

I knew right when I walked in that this was the girls room, what was her name? Ah, whatever. What I was really focused on though were all the shiny things she had. Especially the crystals. I had no idea what all of them did, but something tells me they would come in handy later.

Another thing I noticed was how neat and organized everything was. Which could only mean one thing.

This girl was up-tight. Something I've never gotten along with. And the floral print on the bed? How adorable.

And by adorable I mean this girl needs to get herself an interior decorator because she sure as hell can't do it on her own.

Another very interesting thing I noticed though, was a journal. Open. That was just asking to be read. So I did.

_Squadron log._

_Still no sign of Cyclonis. I'm worried that she is gone forever. I shouldn't worry though. Aerrow said there was no way someone could disappear that quickly. He is right. I've started working on my crystal experiments again in the large amount of spare time I now have. I just can't get the floater to stay down long enough. I've been working on this same crystal for so long. I'm going to try to calibrat-_

Oh my atmos, is she boring.

I decided it was time to move on to another room. I turned right out of the girls room, and it looked like I was getting closer to the deck. I'm pretty sure that's where the wallop took the merb, so that would be my last stop. Seeing that merb faint was the best part of my day so far though. Although the red head didn't seem to find it very amusing. Maybe he has something up his ass, because that was funny as hell.

I'm pretty sure he doesn't trust me either. Kind of good though, I don't really trust myself sometimes. I did notice his constant staring at my guns. To tell you the truth, the guns are empty and I wouldn't be able to take all these guys down even if I had a million crystals to power them up. I am a good shot, but not_ that_ good.

I'm half tempted to help these guys out though. I pretty much know where Cyclonis is. I worked for her at one point, until she suddenly got paranoid and made all female guards go work in some stupid crystal mine. I left actually, I escaped at that point because let me tell you, there is no way I am doing that kind of labor for that stuck up bitch. How weird is it that I would be on the ship with the very squadron that Cyclonis had reserved her most ultimate hate for? Kind of ironic. I think.

But what the hell was that thing standing on Mr. Sky Knights shoulder? Looked like a cross between some mutated monkey and rabbit. The fact that this thing had its own little outfit was pretty freaking adorable though.

I guess the only one I don't have a problem with would be the blond one. He seems kind of fun. But also kind of cocky. Another type of person I don't usually get along with. Ah well. We'll just have to see how this works out. For now, I have another room to look in. At least I hope it's another bedroom.

"Hey!"

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><p>So there you go. The stupidest name for an OC ever. :D<p>

Next chapter should be coming up soon. And I'm sorry if there are any punctuation mistakes in here, I had to go back and add in all the apostrophes and quotation marks again. -_-;

Don't forget to review! :D


	3. Curiousity killed the cat

Wow guys. Thank you for the reviews! They mean a lot! :D

I do want to say, yes, my OC is pretty much a bitch in these first few chapters. It will get better, I promise. For some reason, I've had to go back and fix all the punctuation, so again, I'm sorry if there's mistakes.

Okay, I'm done now.

I do not own Storm Hawks.

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><p><strong>Shubbz POV<strong>

"Hey you!"

Or at least I was going to look in the room. Can't exactly do that with Blondie running towards me.

"Hey yourself!" I shouted back. Might as well make some conversation. Although he didn't look like he was in the talking mood. Too bad, because I was. "You guys got a pretty cool looking ship here." I am such a liar.

"Yeah, I guess we do." He looked around like this place was his pride and joy. Yup, he was a cocky one. I decided to take a different approach.

"I love what you've done with the rust. And the peeling paint adds a nice touch. Really makes me forget about the smell." It was like watching a balloon deflate. He lost all evidence of pride and slumped down, looking at the floor.

"So, what are you doing?" Nice change of subject, Blondie.

"Eh. Just checking out the place. Figured I would if I was gonna stay here for a while."

"Oh. Well, I don't think that's a good idea." Oh did he?

"And why's that?"

"Uhh because it isn't your ship."

"Well it wasn't your ship either when you found it, but you're still here." Check. Mate.

"Well, no, but I mea-"

"Exactly." I pretty much ended the conversation. Or at least I thought I did until he came running up next to me.

"Okay, how about we start over."

"Whatever floats your boat Fred."

"Finn."

"I knew that." No I didn't.

"Uhm anyways, how about we just talk. I mean, it wouldn't hurt to get to know the Finnster." He smiled and flexed his muscles. I wasn't sure if he was hitting on me or not.

"The Finnster, huh?"

"The one and only, babe."

You've got to be kidding me.

"Look dude. You're not my type. And I'm pretty sure I'm not your type either. I'm guessing that living with only one girl means you don't see many others that often, but for the love of Atmos, work on your flirting before you try to do that again." Okay, that was harsh even for me, but he really needed help with that. He looked so sad after that, I almost felt bad. But then I remembered that I still hadn't finished my exploration, so it was time to ditch this guy.

"I'd love to keep chatting with you, but I'm pretty sure you would want to go take care of that...thing...on your face." I said, pointing at his forehead. He got pale, and sprinted off to who knows where. I decided to get moving before he realized there was nothing on his face. Resuming my expedition, I went straight towards the door I was going to walk in before Finn interrupted me.

This room was even more boring than the last. The walls were almost bare, except for a picture of the one girl whose name I can't remember, another picture of that wallop dude, and one of this girl with black hair, whom I had never seen before. Right above the bed was a shield, and on the wall next to it were twin blades. They were some nice looking blades though. To bad I suck when it comes to hand to hand combat.

I also noticed a shelf in the corner with a cute little model of skimmer, which had a shield on it that matched the one on the wall.

I wasn't really sure whose room it was though. I'm pretty sure it wasn't Finns, because he would've gone off to his room to check the invisible thing on his face. And I didn't think the wallop would have a picture of himself up, though you never knew. He didn't strike me as the self absorbed type though. So that just left the red head and the merb. The room looked overly official. As if an officer lived in here.

Oh, duh. This was the Sky Knights room. Made sense to, because it was closest to the bridge.

But damn! This dude seemed boring. It was kind of sad actually. These guys were like, what, fourteen to sixteen years old? You would think a teenage boy would at least have more than three pictures up. Maybe it was the fact that he was the Sky Knight. I guess if you were supposed to be in charge, you would want to look more mature than your age.

That's when the closet caught my eye. There was no way I wasn't opening that.

But of course, it was also very bare. A few clothes here and there, not much else. Except for a box .

I wasted no time opening the cardboard box up. Only to find a bunch of papers, most of it maps with red X's, like they all went on some major treasure hunt. There were some pages that looked like they also came from a journal, but didn't look very interesting. Until I saw a picture.

On the picture was the one and only, Lightning Strike. The Sky Knight of the original Storm Hawks, and pretty much my idol growing up. With him were the rest of the squadron, including the Dark Ace. It was a nice picture, despite the fact that they were all murdered by one of their own. I was more than upset when I learned about what happened. At that time, I never thought that I would be working for the traitor, even being in the same room with him from time to time. We never paid each other much attention though. To him, I was just another talon. And to me, he was just another guy who ordered me around.

There was another problem with being a talon. Not only were you given low pay and your chances of death painfully high, but it was boring, and super restrictive. I can't even begin to tell you how many rules they had. Rules were something I broke often, so I was demoted many times. Not that I cared. I don't think I even cared when they did promote me. To me, it was the same shit with a different rank. In the end, we all had to serve under one person. And to me, that isn't much of a life. Neither is drifting all over the place with a broken down skimmer, but hey, I wasn't complaining.

I was just about to put the picture down when I noticed something. I can't believe it took me that long to make the connection. As I looked at the picture of Lightning Strike some more, I couldn't help but see the image of another person in my mind. Someone that I had just met today in fact. And that's when it clicked.

I was on a ship that belonged to the son of Lightning Strike.

And his son had just walked through the door.

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><p>Uh...cliffhanger? ._. Also, if you guys wanted to know, my OC is supposed to be 17 years old. Just thought you should know that. My OC is based off a lot of my personality to, except I'm not that rude. Or at least I hope I'm not. But because of that, it's much easier for me to write in first person with her.<p>

Alright, thats about it. Again, thank you guys soooo much for reviewing, and I hope you enjoy this chapter! Don't forget to review to, because that's what keeps me going with this. :D


	4. Chapter is not good enough for a title

Hey guys, didn't have such a good day today. But I forced myself to finish typing this chapter, so I'm sorry if it's not very good. ^^;

I still don't own Storm Hawks.

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><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

I'm usually not very up tight about people being in my room.

But not only was this girl sneaking around our ship, she was also going through my personal stuff. And that, is not something I take lightly. I had just about enough with her. She didn't seem to care much about anyone but herself, and she acted as if everything she did was hilarious. We had reached out with hospitality, which she immediately took for granted.

"Would you like to get out of my things?" For once, she actually looked scared. And that was good, because I was getting tired of her_ I don't care_ kind of attitude. Still, she looked like she had seen a ghost. She shoved the papers back into the box, and without saying anything, ran out of my room.

I wasn't sure if I should have been worried about that or not. Had she seen something of mine? I bent down to look at the papers she had thrown down. On the top was the picture of the original squadron. My fathers squadron. Maybe that was what had freaked her out? I don't know why it would though.

I froze. What if she knew my father in some way? What if she knew my mother? There had to be a good reason for her acting like that.

Or maybe she was just nuts. Maybe she was just mentally unstable and had mood swings.

Maybe I was thinking about it too much.

I did have to find her though. I may have gotten her out of my room, but I still couldn't have her roaming around the ship like she owned the place. I straightened up the papers and set them back down in the box. I decided to push the box back farther, covering it with some clothes. I didn't want more people looking in that. Not like there was something bad in there, I just don't want people in my stuff.

I headed out into the hallway, where I ran into Junko. He looked shaken, and he held his hands out in front as if he was ready to beat someone up.

"Junko, what happened?" He shook his head.

"It's that girl. I don't know what it is about her, but I feel like she's watching me."

"Did she do anything to you?" I swear, if she was harassing my squadron, there was no way I was letting her stay on the ship.

"No, she didn t. I just have a weird feeling about her." He wasn't the only one.

"It's fine Junko. Go to your room and lay down for now. If I see her, I'll talk to her." That seemed to help. He lowered his hands and nodded, and headed off towards his room. If I had known in the beginning that this girl was going to be so much trouble, I would have tried to convince everyone to leave her out there. Although the more I think about it, the more I realize that if she hadn't shown up, I'd still be taking apart my skimmer.

"Crap." I said out loud. I still had to put my skimmer back to together. I knew taking it apart every other day was a stupid idea. I figured that Finn and Piper would run into Shubbz sooner or later. There was a chance I could find her in the hanger bay to. Right now, the skimmer was first priority. And although she was annoying, she still hadn't made any threats against us. I didn't need to give her a reason to.

I made my way over to the hanger bay, saying hello to Radarr on the way, who had long ago left my shoulder and went off to do whatever it was he did when he wasn't on my shoulder. It looked like he was stalking something, but I wasn't sure what. I didn't see the point in finding out though. It was probably another mouse. Something we have a lot of around here.

I finally made it to the hanger bay. Imagine my surprise when I saw Shubbz, laying underneath my skimmer, putting it back together.

Okay, she better not be booby trapping my skimmer.

As silently as I could, I walked up towards her. She must have sensed someone was there because she stiffened. Before she could move, I grabbed onto her foot and yanked her out. She was covered in oil, but I couldn't care less. I wanted answers, and I wanted them now.

"What do you think you're doing?" She looked surprised. This time when she spoke though, it was quiet and almost sounded as if she was afraid. Something was definitely wrong with her.

"Is this...your skimmer?" She looked like she was going to cry. I almost felt bad, especially since I was still holding onto her foot, and not very lightly I might add. I let go of her, and she quickly stood up. She started to turn around, and I knew she was going to make a break for it, but I grabbed her elbow, lighter this time. She slowly turned to look at me, well, she kept looking at the floor. She really just turned her head towards me.

"Yes, it is my skimmer. What are you doing with it?" She looked over at the skimmer.

"I was fixing it." She was what?

"Why?"

"I don't know. I noticed it had some pieces missing, so I decided to fix it." I really didn't know if I believed her or not. If this was how she had acted the whole time, I would have, but she had been very different earlier, so I was still suspicious.

"You don't believe me, do you? I know you don't."

"I just don't know you. First I see you messing around with my things, and now you're messing with-"

"Fixing." She corrected me.

"-my skimmer." I couldn't figure this girl out. It was like she had developed a whole new personality. "Okay. What is going on? What did you find in my room?" No answer. "Was it the picture?" Again, no answer, but I knew that's what it was. "Did you know my parents?"

"No...I didn't. Well, I knew your father, but not personally. He was my idol you know."

"That's great?" What was I supposed to say to that?

"Just thought you should know. I wanted to fix your skimmer as a way of saying thank you...and sorry. I shouldn't have gone looking in your room. I just get so curious sometimes." She looked so upset. She was harder to figure out than Piper was.

"Okay, you're welcome. But you still shouldn't be looking around in my stuff. If you want to stay here for a little bit, you're going to have treat all of us and our things with respect." Finally, I was able to voice how I felt about her attitude before. And even better, she was listening. I wasn't sure what had happened to make her have such a sudden change of thought, but I didn't know if I cared enough. What mattered was that she was actually listening now.

I was not, however, prepared for what she had to say next.

* * *

><p>There you go.<p>

Reviews are always nice. They motivate me and would definitely help improve my mood. :)


	5. Emotions, who needs 'em?

Hey! Thank you guys for the reviews, again, it really helped my mood yesterday! :D

Just so you know, the beginning of this chapter goes through the last chapter a bit, just through a different point of view.

Mkay, thats it. :3

I don't own Storm hawks.

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><p><strong>Shubba's POV<strong>

I had to get out of there.

If I had realized in the beginning that this kid was Lightning Strikes son, I would have never gone near this ship.

It wasn't like I was afraid he was going to kill me or anything, it was just that he was Lightning Strikes son. I know that doesn't seem so bad, but believe me, it was bad. And I didn't want to be anywhere near this kid.

But I froze up. I didn't know what to say to him. He was staring at me, expecting an answer, but I couldn't think. So I did the next best thing. I shoved the papers back and got the hell out of there. I didn't know how I was going to get off this ship, but I was going to.

And of course I would run into the wallop. And by run into, I mean literally, I ran right into him. I think he got more freaked out than I did. In fact, he fell backwards. I don't know why he did, but he did. I didn't care though.

Until I heard someone else walking down the hall. Just as the wallop was getting up, I ran around the corner and sprinted towards the hanger bay. I didn't want to stay and see who it was. All I knew was that I had to get away from that kid and fast.

It didn't take long to get to the hanger bay. There was only one problem though. Okay, a few problems. One, I m not good at driving heliscooters. I know, sad, but I've never had to use one before. The two other skimmers looked fine, but both were way too low on fuel to get me very far. There was some other weird looking vehicle, but it had a locking mechanism on it. Probably a good thing, since I didn't even know what it was. Then I saw the skimmer that looked a lot like the tiny one that was on that Sky Knights shelf. The fuel was more than fine, but it was taken apart.

So I went right to work on it. Hopefully I would be able to get it fixed and take off before anyone came in here.

I was almost done to, until I thought I heard the sound of a door opening and closing. Before I could have any more time to think about it, I felt something grasp my foot, and basically rip me out from under the skimmer. And of course, it would be the damn Sky Knight.

And he looked pissed.

"What do you think you're doing?" Uh, fixing your skimmer so I can steal it and get away from this ship?

"Is this...your skimmer?" It was the only thing I think of. He let go of my foot, which was now sore. I needed to get out of there and find another way off the ship, so I jumped up and turned as fast as I could to run, but was once again, grabbed by this kid. I'm just about ready to punch him, although I'm pretty sure he could beat the crap out of me.

"Yes, it is my skimmer. What are you doing with it?" Oh come on, what am I doing with it?

"I was fixing it." That's probably the first truth I've told today.

He asked why, and I had spewed probably one of the biggest lies I've ever told. I had said I was fixing it as an apology for the way I acted earlier. Which, yeah, I was sort of sorry, but not enough that I would fix a skimmer for it. He didn't look very convinced though.

"You don't believe me, do you? I know you don't."

"I just don't know you. First I see you messing around with my things, and now you're messing with-"

"Fixing." I was fixing it. Why would I mess with a skimmer I intended to steal?

"-my skimmer." He pretty much attacked me with questions. Questions about why I turned as white as the merb did when he saw me in his stuff in his room. I knew one thing. For his sake, he needed to let me off this ship. I wasn't about to tell him that though.

He didn't seem to realize how much danger he was in right now.

But then I thought about it more. Maybe if I helped these guys find Cyclonis, I could get away without having to do anything illegal. I knew he was going to be keeping an eye on me, and I really didn't feel like having the Storm Hawks as my enemy. I knew that I was acting on borrowed time...but maybe I could do something good for once in my life. And who knows, maybe nothing bad will happen. Where was I going to go anyways?

I knew what I was going to do now.

I had kind of forgotten to listen to him, I think he said something important but I couldn't tell. But it looked like he was waiting for me to say something.

So I did.

* * *

><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

"She said what?" Piper was excited. And why wouldn't she be? For the first time in a month, we had a chance! I had called a meeting, and everyone, minus Shubbz, who I had told to stay in the hallway and not to go anywhere else, had gathered around the table. Radarr had found his spot on my shoulder to, and for the first time in a while, it felt like a squadron again.

"She said she could help us find Cyclonis!" I don't know how she would know where Cyclonis was, but at this point, I didn't care. As long as she could help us, that was good enough for me.

"How do we know if she's telling the truth? What if it's a trap?" Stork brought us back to reality. I hadn't thought about that one. She was a confusing person, but she wasn't hostile. That could mean something, couldn't it?

"We're just going to have to take our chances. If she does turn out to be lying, we can take her. She doesn't seem very dangerous." Piper looked down, I knew she was thinking about this.

"I think Aerrow's right. We need to take this chance. We can't let this type of opportunity slip past." She had a look of determination. Something I had missed seeing. They all looked excited, even Stork.

Maybe this girl wasn't so bad after all.

* * *

><p><strong>Shubbz POV<strong>

What the hell did I just do.

I only had an idea as to where Cyclonis would be, but instead I decided to tell him that I knew where she was. What if I couldn't find her? What if something happened to the Sky Knight? This was bad. I may not be the most angelic person in the Atmos, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something bad happened to the kid.

I thought about waiting till night came when I could sneak out and use the skimmer to make my escape. But something was stopping me. Maybe guilt? They had saved my life, and they did let me stay on the ship. But what was worse? Stealing a skimmer and leaving them safe, or staying with them and having the kid get hurt? They all sounded so happy to. I couldn't just leave all of a sudden..could I? I had no idea what I wanted to do, and it was then that I realized something important.

Emotions suck.

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><p>Okay. There ya go. :D Next chapter will have a lot more in it.<p>

Don't forget to review! :D


	6. Oh wow, this is awkward

Okay, I had to go through this thing twice and fix all the punctuation. It was not fun. Still, this was my favorite chapter to write, so I hope you guys enjoy!

Also, someone had asked how old Shubbz was. Since she is based off of me, although I'm much less rude than her, she is 17 years old. Another thing, I encourage you guys to go to my profile and copy and paste the link to my DeviantArt I have up there to see what she looks like. I have a bunch of other Storm hawks stuff there to, so go check it out! :D

I still don't own Storm hawks.

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><p><strong>Piper's POV<strong>

It was great. Feeling like a squadron again, I mean. Who would've known that this random girl we found today would be the key to finding Cyclonis, and maybe even another portal?

Sure, she was an odd person, not the most polite either. But she had still agreed to help us, in fact, she had volunteered to help us. I knew I had to go thank her. Now if I could just find her. After the team meeting, I hadn't really seen her at all. It was almost as if she made a point of being away from all of us at all times. She seemed like the kind of person who valued her alone time. Still, if she was going to stay with us on the ship for a while, she had to learn to become a part of the squad, just for a little bit.

Besides, I like my quiet time, and I never get it. Plus, there was another girl on the ship. It would be nice to talk to another girl. Especially after having to be with these boys for so long. Don't get me wrong, they're all great, Aerrow especially, but they are all boys. And sometimes, they just don't understand how a girl thinks.

As I thought about all of this, I had been walking around the Condor, trying to find Shubbz, which to me, was still a very weird name. I made a mental note to remember to ask her if she had a full name. I hope Shubbz wasn't it.

And just as I was getting tired, I found her, standing out at the balcony, much like Aerrow would sometimes do when he was deep in thought. I made my way out there, but stopped at the door. I didn't want to startle her, so I knocked on the metal next to it, causing her to turn around.

"Oh. Hey you..." She forgot my name. Not a good start.

"It's Piper."

"Piper. Sorry. Not good with names." She turned around to look at the dark sky again. I had the feeling she didn't really want to talk right now. But my curiosity was too much. I had to get to know this girl better.

"It's alright. I wanted to thank you actually." I found a spot on the railing next to her. She didn't seem to mind. "Without you, we would have been stuck doing the same thing we've been doing for a month."

"Sitting around wondering when you were going to get to kick the crap out of someone?" She smiled. I couldn't help but laugh. Despite her crude language, she did have good humor.

"Yeah. Pretty much that." I responded. I looked out at the stars. It was weird. The stars here looked the same as they did in Atmos, but I knew it wasn't the same. I couldn't help but feel homesick. I mean, the Condor was my home, but I missed being able to recognize terras. I missed occasionally seeing Starling, Dove, or pretty much anyone else who had happened to come our way. Even the chickens that had always spawned around the ship randomly had disappeared, Radarr not bothering to hide how he felt about it.

"Have you ever wondered if you were on the right path?" I was brought back by her words. I thought about it for a moment. I did know how it felt. But then I met Aerrow and the rest of the squad. I knew right now that my path was pretty much set.

"I used to feel that way." I was too tired to get into to much detail about it. I could tell she didn't mind that.

"I've always wondered about it. I've never felt like I was doing what I was meant to do, ya know?" I wasn't expecting this kind of talk from her. I had expected a few rude comments, maybe a sarcastic joke thrown in, but not something like this. I took a good look at her again, but this time, I saw someone different. I didn't see the girl who had scared our pilot half to death and found it hilarious. Instead, I saw a girl who had lost her way a long time ago. It was...weird to see that. I put my hand on her shoulder, and she stiffened. She turned her head to look at my hand in confusion, then up at me. I knew she didn't think I could help her, but I had gained a new respect for this girl.

"Everyone finds their purpose. You just have take chances." And I feel like, for the first time since we saw this girl, she gave me a genuine smile. But despite the touching moment, I decided I was too tired to stay out there. I quickly thanked her again and headed back inside. I'm pretty sure she stayed out on the balcony for most of the night. I hadn't thought about where she was going to sleep, but I think she found a place.

* * *

><p><strong>Shubbz POV<strong>

I had no idea where I was going to sleep. You would think that with all this exploring I did, I would find some place to freaking sleep. Well, at least I knew the girls name now. I am so bad with names it's not even funny.

Piper may not be so bad though. At least she listened. That's something I wasn't used to. I had no idea why I had told her that to. Maybe I've been away from people for too long...

I'm still trying to figure out whether or not staying with these guys was a good idea. I had thought about going to the hanger to leave at least seven times now, but each time, I stopped myself. I have no idea why I stopped myself though. I was endangering their Sky Knights life by just being here. Of all the squadrons in the Atmos, I just had to run into this one. Even though it was my curiosity that had me end up in the Farside, and I'm pretty sure that these guys were the only Atmosians here, other than myself.

I let myself float back to reality slowly, and I was suddenly aware of how freaking cold it was outside. I went back in to see the deck empty. The merb had parked the ship under a rock to go get some sleep. Sleep sounded really good right about now to. I looked around the room. Nothing looked very comfy at all, but I guess it's my fault for not asking about where I was going to stay. So I plopped myself down on the table. It was extremely uncomfortable, but it was the best I was going to get.

* * *

><p><em>Come back!<em>

_They were screaming at her in the darkness, the voices clawing up her legs and forcing their way into her head._

_"Go away!" The voices only grew louder. It kept chanting the same things over and over. She felt as if she was underwater, her legs seemed to move in slow motion. The darkness had surrounded her, making her blind. The ground seemed to move beneath her, making her disoriented. Her limbs wobbled back and forth, desperately trying to keep balance.  
><em>

_Her knees buckled, and she collapsed into a heap of disjointed arms and legs, like a marionette puppet whose strings had been cut._

_Suddenly, light exploded around her, only to be covered by darkness once again. This time, a figure of a man who towered over her like a skyscraper could be seen in the black void.  
><em>

_Come back. Come back. You're not safe. Come back. You're not safe._

_She could see pictures flash before her eyes. All of them showing the Storm Hawks squadron, Lightning Strike in the front. Leading the charge into Cyclonia. Being cut down by his own co-pilot. Falling to his death in the wastelands.  
><em>

_"Why are you showing me this?" She screamed at this man. He spoke, but when he did, it was as if the whole Atmos spoke with him._

_"You're not safe." It was the same thing. Repeated over and over. She curled into a ball, covering her ears, guarding them from the words that crawled like spiders on her skin. It grew louder still._

_"Stay away. Stay away. Stay away." As he said this, once again, millions of images flashed in her head, this time of Lighting Strikes son._

_"Why? What did I do?" her face was wet with tears. It was the same thing. Over. And over. And over._

_"Stay away. You're not safe. Stay away. Let no harm fall upon him." Again, images of the boy spiraled around her, swallowing her in a tornado of pictures. The voice rose to scream, and she held her head tighter, the sounds threatening to split her in half._

* * *

><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

I don't know how I was the only one that heard it. Maybe it's because I'm closest to the bridge or something. But I heard it.

I ran out to the deck to see Shubbz lying on our table, pretty much screaming her head off. I had to wake her up, whether I wanted to or not. Yes, she was helping us find Cyclonis, but I wanted sleep. I grabbed her shoulders and shook her as hard as I could, and her eyes started to blink open. The screaming turned into quiet sobs.

Now, I was really freaked out. She had gone through probably ten mood swings today, and now, I'm holding this girl that I barely know, who is now crying into my shoulder. I had no idea what to do. I didn't want to just drop her, so I stayed there and held her. Her sobs started to subside, and she pulled away from me quickly.

"Sorry." It was all she said. Now, I was really confused. Especially when she got up to leave again. I have no idea where she thought she was going to go. I grabbed her for what seemed like the millionth time today.

"What's wrong?" It didn't look like she wanted to tell me. That was too bad though. I wanted an explanation for why she was wailing in the middle of the night.

Instead, she starts to cry again. Which is great, because now I really have no idea what to do. She tried to wrestle her arm free, but I still wanted answers. And she was still freaking crying. So I did the the first thing that popped into my head. I yanked her closer to me, and I hugged her. She stiffened up to the point where I thought she had turned into stone.

I really hoped that I hadn't made things extremely awkward.

* * *

><p><strong>Shubbz POV<strong>

This is extremely awkward.

* * *

><p>I love that ending. xD<p>

And I thought about the romance thing some more, and figured that I didn't want to write romance in, mostly because I've always been iffy about romance between and OC and a cannon character. Instead, plan for a really close friendship.

And that's it. Don't forget to review! You guys have been pretty awesome with reviewing to! ^^

Also, like I said before, go check out the link on my page to see what Shubbz looks like! :D


	7. Bash his head in!

Alright guys, the amount of time between updating chapters is going to be a lot longer now. But don't worry, it wont be too bad. I'll still update. ;)

Amazingly enough, I still don't own Storm Hawks. ._.

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><p><strong>Shubbz POV<strong>

I'm pretty sure this was the most uncomfortable I had ever been in my life.

Let me tell you something. I do not like it when people that I don't know touch me. And this boy was hugging me. That, for me, is a big no no.

I didn't know if I wanted to stand there and wait for him to get his hands off of me, or kick him right in the balls.

It was bad enough that he found me crying, but now he's trying to comfort me. I don't _need_ comforting. I am perfectly capable of handling my own problems. What's worse, he wants to know about it now to. What am I going to say? Oh, by the way, you should probably know that I've had nightmares about hurting you and/or killing you since I was seven years old.

Yeah, that isn't happening.

And he was still hugging me! Having had enough, I pushed away from him. I didn't have to do it forcefully either, he looked he wanted to get the hell out of there to.

Of course, he could've avoided the whole thing if he just let me leave. He has no one to blame but himself for putting us in the awkward situation. And still, nothing was said. So here we both are, sitting on the table in awkward silence.

This is great.

When he still hadn't said anything, I decided to fill that silence.

"Uhm okay kid, I know you're trying to 'help',"I made quotation marks with my fingers."but I can take care of myself just fine. And also, it's none of your business." It kind of is his business, but he doesn't need to know that.

He stared at me for a moment as if he was thinking of what to say. Don't know why it was taking him so long though. Even though we just met this morning, he should know by now that when I say 'It's none of your business' , I mean it's none of his business and I 'aint telling him anything.

He finally looked back up at me with a curious look on his face, which, I gotta admit, scared me a little bit. Mostly because I thought he was going to keep trying to ask me what was wrong. I don't think I had enough energy to lie my way out of this one.

"You still don't know my name, do you?"

Okay, I was not expecting that. And I'll admit, I had sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out this kids name. It was embarrassing to, because as I'm trying to remember his name, he's sitting there looking at me as if I was the stupidest thing on the planet.

I was not paying very close attention when Piper had been going through names, obviously.

"...It's Allen, isn't it?" He gave me that _you've got to be kidding_ look. So I'm guessing that wasn't it.

"No, it's Aerrow." Oh. Yeah.

"I knew it was something like that. Sorry, not very good with names." I really wanted to stop talking to him. Being that close to him made me nervous.

I was about to get up and find some other place to sleep when he spoke again.

"Look. I'm not going to make you tell me what's wrong. But you should know that if you're going to be staying with us for a while, you're going to have to be open with us. Keeping secrets from us is no way to earn our trust, and I don't want to have a reason to be suspicious of you."

If I had known that staying here would mean that I had to become part of this dysfunctional family, then I would have jumped off the ship a long time ago.

For a split second, I had really contemplated taking one of my guns out and bashing him over the head with it while he was off guard. He looked like he was as tired as I was, so maybe it would have been easy to knock him out to.

But then I took a good look at his face. It was weird, because he actually looked like he was trying to trust me.

I'll be honest, I don't run into a lot of trusting people. Especially with the way I act.

"Do you need somewhere to sleep?" Aerrow's voice pulled me away from my thoughts. He probably said something because I was staring at him, trying to figure out how I could knock him unconscious. Nice, isn't it?

However, I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes. "Nah, I planned on never sleeping again." I said this way too sarcastically, which earned a look of irritation from Aerrow.

Note to self, I should probably try to work on my attitude while I'm here.

"Alright. We have some extra pillows and maybe a blanket or two. You can either sleep in Piper's room, or the hanger bay."

"...The hanger bay?"

"It's farthest away from all our rooms. Just in case you start screaming again for no reason." I flinched at that. "But I would think you'd want to sleep somewhere nicer than the hanger bay."

Still, I immediately opted for the hanger bay. I just felt weird about sharing a room with another girl I barely knew. And besides, Aerrow had a point. I didn't want anyone to find me having another nightmare.

So I headed off towards the hanger bay. I didn't know how I was going to make it through all of this. It was frustrating enough that I couldn't seem to make myself leave, but another part of me wanted to be as far away from Aerrow as I possibly could.

What did I think I was doing here? I wasn't an expert in anything. Hell, I didn't even have crystals to power up my guns, and even then I'm not a great shot! All I had was an idea as to where Cyclonis was. And that was all. Even that wasn't that good enough. What if we never found her? Would I stay with these kids?

No, I couldn't. Every minute I was here, I was putting Aerrow in danger. And I couldn't put myself through any more of this.

Finally, I had made it to the hanger bay. I chose a small corner away from the vehicles, but also close to a vent where heat was radiating from. Aerrow still wasn't back with the pillows or blankets, so I decided to lay down. I was way too tired to sit up.

Too tired to wait, in fact. Unwilling to keep myself awake until Aerrow returned, I let myself drift into the darkness, and my body felt numb and heavy with exhaustion.

* * *

><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

I came back to the hanger bay to find Shubbz scrunched up in a corner on the floor, asleep. I don't blame her either, she looked like she hadn't had a good night's sleep in a while.

I still couldn't stop thinking about her crying. Something had obviously frightened her. But nightmares can do that to some people. I know I've had some pretty bad nightmares. I don't cry because of them, but they're not pleasant.

It was almost like I saw a glance of a different side of her on the bridge. Something she obviously did not want other people to see. I could respect that. I know when I'm upset, I'm not exactly willing to show it to my team, no matter how close they may be to me. Though I'm not rude, like Shubbz happens to be. However, I get the feeling that it was her way of keeping people away from her.

I feel like I'm trying to crack a code or something. There's so much I want to know about this girl, but she doesn't want me to know anything.

Maybe with time, she'll open up to us. Or at least I hope she will. Otherwise it s going to be a long couple of months. I mean, I hope it ll only be a couple of months. Or maybe shorter. Whatever.

As I watched her sleep, which sounded really creepy, even to me, I realized just how tired I was. So I went over to Shubbz, and trying not to wake her up, I lifted her head and slipped a pillow underneath. Luckily for me, she happened to be a very deep sleeper. I didn't want to have her wake up and end up in another awkward situation.

I sat the other pillow down next to her head. If she needed it that badly, she would wake up and get it. I think.

At least the blanket was easy. I slowly covered her with the blanket, and laughed inwardly when she hunched her shoulders up and smiled, as if snuggling into it. She was much nicer when she was asleep.

Deciding it was time for me to head off to bed, I turned and headed towards the door. I was just about to reach it to, when I heard a soft murmur. It sounded as if someone had said "Thank you."

I turned back to look at Shubbz again, who had rolled over on to her other side, facing the wall.

* * *

><p>HOW CUTE.<p>

But no pairings guys. Sorry if you were looking forward to that. D:

I could be persuaded to include a pairing however, in the reviews. ;D

That means review.

Right now.

Yeah, now.

Do it.

O_O


	8. LEERRRROOOOOY JEEEENKINS

Wow guys. I am sooooo sorry for the wait. But here ya go. Next chapter. I'm amazed that I managed to make it this far. I want to thank everyone for the reviews, I love all of you for that. Also, if you still haven't seen Shubbz, you can see her here: http:/ dplover25. deviantart. com/art/If-I-were-a-Storm-Hawk-195276370

Just copy and paste this into your browser WITHOUT the spaces. I have a crap load of other Storm Hawks art there to if you want to check it out. :D

Okay. On with the story.

* * *

><p><strong>Shubbz POV<strong>

Surprisingly enough, I slept through the rest of the night. Who knew the cold floor of a hangar bay would be so comfortable? I sure as hell didn't. The sudden hospitality I got last night was unexpected to. And refreshing. It was one of the most interesting nights I had had in a long time. I don't know if it was good or bad interesting though. But whatever. I figured that if these people were going to such great lengths to make sure I was comfortable, then I might as well try to bond with them.

Although I didn't expect to be waking up to the blue furry thing sniffing my face.

He seemed as surprised as I was. On instinct, I sprang up, managing to knock the little guy at least five feet. Kinda felt bad to. The little thing was probably curious, and I just sent him flying. Yeah, you're building a relationship with these guys real well, Shubbz.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-" I stopped myself, remembering that this thing probably didn't have any idea as to what I was saying. At least, I thought so. He stood up, dusted himself off much like a human would, and chirped at me.

"..Do...do you understand me?" Amazingly enough, he nodded.

Huh. This is kinda weird.

* * *

><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

I had told everyone to stay away from the hangar bay until Shubbz got up. I know she had been a brat since she got here, but even she deserved some sleep. We had all gone back to our mundane routine, although this time, we had something to look forward to. Piper was planning to talk to Shubbz about Cyclonis's location when she was awake, and I was planning to ask her more about the portal. I tried to forget what I had seen last night, which was a lot harder to do than I thought it would be. What was going on with her was none of my business, despite how curious I was. It was one of those things that would probably reveal itself later.

It was then that I was, once again, startled out of my thoughts by the alarm. It was basically déjà vu as we all gathered around Stork, who was currently looking through one of the scopes.

"What is it this time?" Piper asked excitedly. Stork didn't look as excited as he let go of the scope and ran towards the wheel.

"Talons!"

That word. We hadn't heard that word in a while. A visible shiver ran through all of us. Although I was much more eager and excited than worried. If it was talons, that meant we were getting closer to finding Cyclonis.

Pulling down a scope, I looked out into the sky. Stork was right. There were at least ten talons out there. All of them heading straight towards us. I let go of the scope and turned to my squad, all waiting for my orders, even though they all knew what I was going to say.

"To your skimmers!" And with that, we all sprinted towards the hangar bay. Shubbz was probably already up by now, and if not, then she is one hell of a sleeper.

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><p><strong>Piper's POV<strong>

To say I was excited would be an understatement. Finally, after what seemed like months of waiting, we finally came across some talons. Cyclonis could still be in the Farside!

I was so excited, that I didn't notice Shubbz standing in the way of me and my scooter. She had turned around at the last second as I crashed into her. Next thing I knew, I was staring at the ceiling with Shubbz laying on top of me. Thankfully, she wasted no time in getting up, and I continued towards my scooter.

"Whats going on?" She asked, her voice sharing the same enthusiasm we all had.

"Talons!" She looked down in thought for a second, and I knew from that face that she was making a decision. Suddenly, she jerked her head back up to look at Aerrow, her eyes gleaming.

"I can help! I have guns! I need a couple crystals to power them up, but I could take shots from here." She looked pleadingly at Aerrow.

For a split second, everyone froze. She was helping us? I looked over at Aerrow, who seemed to be deep in thought. I didn't see a problem with it. It would be good to have all of us out there and have another one on the ship. Still, what if she aimed at us? What if this whole thing was a trap?

Although, if she had really come to get rid of us, she would've done it last night when our guard was down. Plus, I had been told that she had gone in my room, but it didn't look like anything was taken. She would've taken some crystals and done away with us if she really wanted to...

"Alright." Aerrow finally said. "You stay here and help Stork. If you see one of us having trouble, I expect some back up. Got it?" His voice was stern, like a parent telling their children what time to be home. Shubbz saluted in response, and I tossed her some crystals when she looked over my way. Her face lit up even more, if that was possible.

"Ooh! Frost crystals!" Okay, she knew what kind of crystal that was? I think I'm starting to like this girl.

She grabbed one of her guns and twirled it around twice. Sticking the crystal in, she put that one back and did the same with the other. She then reached up and, to my surprise, snapped the goggles over her eyes. I didn't know why she needed them, but whatever. If it works for her, that's fine. She grabbed both guns this time and twirled them around, smiling the same smile that she had yesterday. Although this time, it was more reassuring then disconcerting.

She crouched a little, getting into a battle stance. "Lets do this." Her voice was full of determination. I looked over at Aerrow again, who was wearing a lopsided smile. Even Radarr seemed to be looking at Shubbz with admiration. or maybe it was because Aerrow was smiing, I don't know.

After the touching moment, I returned to battle mode. With Aerrow leading the way, we all took off into the sky, leaving Shubbz at the runway.

* * *

><p><strong>Shubbz POV<strong>

I can't even begin to tell you how exhilarating it is to be able to fight some talons. When I was a talon, I had hated mostly everyone I was forced to work with. There were only a couple girls I got along with, but most of the guys were immature and were only concerned about pleasing Cyclonis. So basically, they were all a bunch of suck ups. In fact, one of the talons out there looked familiar. I know I had seen that talon with the green mustache before.

I watched them all take off as the talons flew closer to the Condor. It was amazing actually. Since I was such a fan of the original Storm Hawks, seeing this squadron drive off the runway of the Condor was almost nostalgic for me. Until I realized what I was going to be doing.

I was supposed to be shooting out there, making sure not to hit any of the Storm Hawks. I was supposed to back Aerrow up if he was in trouble. I was supposed to be firing a weapon near his _head._ What if I accidentally hit Aerrow? Why did I think having a loaded gun around this kid would be a good idea?

Why am I so stupid sometimes?

* * *

><p>There ya go! I hope you guys like it! I promise you wont have to wait that long for the next chapter. Just remember to review and check out the picture! :D<p> 


	9. You're completely nuts

Okie dokie guys. This one is packed with action. ;D But before we get to it, I want to tell you guys about _Relentless_, a story that Minn-Maigi and Whisperthewolf are working on. It's a great story to. I was told that it may be on hiatus for a while though, but you should still go check it out. It's pretty awesome. ;)

Okay, on with the story. There's a lot of POV jumping to, so bear with me.

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><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

I don't think I've been this happy in a while. I could almost see the adrenaline pumping through me, I had missed that feeling so much. The rush of battle. The feeling of the wind dancing through my hair. I almost forgot what I was doing, I was just so focused on how it felt to be taking off that runway with a purpose.

Thankfully, an energy blast skimming by my head, and Radarr chirping at me in alarm, woke me from my trance. Putting all the focus I had into the unsuspecting talon that had shot at me, I headed straight for him, picking up speed. Radarr, knowing what I was about to do, hunkered down into his seat. He never liked when I did this. I set myself on a collision course with him, but they had gotten wise. Instead of pulling away like I had hoped, the talon kept right on course, as if he had a death sentence. I thought of a new approach.

I stayed on course. I heard Radarr squawk in fear as we kept getting closer to the talon, but just as we were only a few meters apart, I dove, taking one of my blades out and igniting it. I held it above my head, and only a split second later did I hear the sound of metal being torn apart. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the talon eject himself from the skimmer, deploying his parachute seconds later.

In only one minute, I had managed to take one down. Turning to Radarr, who currently had a huge smile on his face, we gave each other a high five. Yeah, this was going to be a good day.

* * *

><p><strong>Finn's POV<strong>

I don't know if everyone else was feeling what I was feeling, but it felt great.

What's even better, I had gotten much more skilled with my crossbow. And I was more than ready to dish out some whoop-ass on these guys.

I could already see Aerrow taking a talon out. I wasn't gonna let him have all the fun though, because I had a great idea. Turning the nose of my skimmer to the sky, I started to ascend until I was sure no talons could see me. The great thing about the Farside, the clouds were so thick that you could feel it. The bad thing about it though was that I couldn't really see who was who either. But I knew I would get it right.

I searched around for what looked like a talon, and positioned myself right above him. I couldn't help but smile. This guy had no idea about the stunt I was about to pull. Getting my crossbow out, I started to dive bomb the talon, who still had no idea I was there!

Just because I wanted to see the look on his face, I let out a yell much like Aerrow would do. The look of fear the talon had right before I shot right at the controls of his skimmer was priceless. I leveled out, but got one last look at the guy jumping off as his ride sparked and fell towards the ground.

Finn, 1. Talons, 0. Chicka. Cha.

* * *

><p><strong>Shubbz POV<strong>

And I thought seeing these guys take off was amazing. The stunts that they were pulling were unbelievable! Finn dive bombing a talon? Brilliant!

I looked over at the wallop, who I just realized I still didn't have a name for. The big guy was actually chasing two talons around! He sped up between them, and before they could do anything about it, he had grabbed both their wings, and flung them up over his head, crashing the two rides together. He let out a "Yeah!" as both talons deployed their parachutes below him.

I was starting to think that they wouldn't need my help after all!

At least I thought so..

I glanced over at Piper, who had three talons surrounding her. Why they were all targeting her, I have no idea. Maybe she had some special ability or something. But right now, she looked like they had caught her off guard, and she fumbled with a bag that looked as if it had crystals in it. Apparently one of the talons had seen this to, and he shot a blast right at her hands, causing her to drop the bag. I could almost hear her cursing in her head as she looked up at the talon with disgust.

* * *

><p><strong>Piper's POV<strong>

Okay, this was not good. I should have known Cyclonis would be targeting me. After all, I did have the binding. But seriously, three talons? That just wasn't fair! And now I was pretty much stuck without my crystals! I could have tried to fight them hand to hand, except I'm not as good as Aerrow when it comes to jumping off skimmers. I pulled out my staff, which fortunately had an energy crystal in it.

However, talon who had shot the bag out of my hands had already rose his staff again, this time aiming it at my head! I wasn't sure if I would have enough time to dodge it or shoot him.

Suddenly, an energy blast hit him right in the chest, freezing him from head to toe. The force of it knocked him right off the skimmer. I don't know if he deployed his chute or not, but I didn't care. The two remaining talons looked up to where the shot had come from. I looked to, but seeing the talon frozen, I already had a good idea as to who it was.

And sure enough, Shubbz was there on the runway.

Doing a victory dance.

I would have said something, but the two talons were already heading straight towards her. Even though my scooter wasn't nearly as fast the skimmers, I chased them, hoping to reach them before they got to her. Besides, she saved me, I had to return the favor.

Apparently done with her dance, Shubbz spun back around, holding both guns out in front of her. She said something, I'm not sure what it was though. It almost looked like she said "Hasta la vista, baby." Knowing her, I bet she did say that.

She fired both guns, hitting and freezing the talon on the right, but missing the one on the left. She looked frustrated at that, even though I thought she was doing pretty good. She jumped out of the way as the talon fired back at her, landing on her stomach. I decided it was time to step in. Raising my own staff, I aimed at the controls on his ride. Just before I fired, I heard the talon shout.

"Shubbz? What are you do-" He was cut off as the blast hit his controls, sending him and his ride down below the clouds.

I looked over at Shubbz, who smiled at me. I smiled back, just before remembering what the talon had said. He knew her? I must have made a face, because Shubbz's smile turned to confusion, then to sudden realization. She knew I had heard that. I gave her a face that said _'We need to talk_' and sped away, back into the fight.

Something tells me there is much more to this girl than she's letting on.

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><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

Things were going pretty well. There were only three talons left. Suddenly, one of the talons skimmers began to spark, and he jumped out. I looked over at Finn, who was already heading towards the next talon.

Okay, two talons left.

I sped in to get one of them, leaving the other one for Finn. In hindsight, it would have been a better idea to go one at a time. We were both so anxious to get the talons, that we crashed right into each other. Before I could think of how embarrassing that was, we were both plummeting. Finn happened to land crotch first on the front of Junko's skimmer, letting out a cry of pain. I don't blame him either, I winced to. I wonder if he even feels it that much anymore though, it's happened so much.

The feeling of little hands gripping my arm brought me back to reality, and I looked over at Radarr who was staring at me, waiting for me to do something. Quickly, I jumped out of the falling skimmer, Radarr still clinging to me. I made a note that we would have to go back down there later to get my broken skimmer.

I deployed the wings of my glider, throwing Radarr onto my back, and brought myself around to chase the talon I had been going for. He was laughing to, which only made me want to get him even more. Unfortunately, I was not prepared for the other talon, that Finn had been after, to shoot at me from behind. I know it hit my glider, because the sky spun around, and I tried to feel for something to grab onto.

Instead of grabbing onto something though, I slammed down on something metal. Opening my eyes, I realized I had landing right on the wing of the talons skimmer. Before he could make a move, I swung my leg out, kicking him right in the face and off the skimmer. I turned my sights to the other talon, who was now being chased by Piper, Junko, and a very pissed off Finn sitting right behind Junko.

"Looks like we're pretty much done, eh, Radarr?" I turned to my side, suddenly realizing that he hadn't fallen on the skimmer with me. I looked around wildly, trying to find him. "Radarr?" I heard a squawk in reply, and looked down to see Radarr still plummeting, getting even closer to clouds below us.

Terrified, I dived as fast as I could to reach him. He was falling faster and faster, and it seemed like I would never reach him. As I dove by the Condor, I swore I could see Shubbz backing up, as if getting a running start. I looked back up in amazement right as she jumped right off the Condor.

Is she crazy?

* * *

><p><strong>Shubbz POV<strong>

I have no idea what possessed me to do it. Seeing that little guy falling and howling in fright just tore at me. And Aerrow wasn't going to get there fast enough with the Skimmer weighing him down.

I didn't even let myself think about it. I just backed up, and jumped right off the edge, angling myself to get speed. I was falling faster then I ever thought I would, his little flailing body getting closer and closer. I reached out my hand and grabbed the little guy by the ears, and held him close to me as I tried to figure out how I was going to get back up.

I could still see Aerrow speeding towards us, his face twisted with fear and what looked like astonishment. Or anger. I bet he was thinking '_How stupid are you?_' Pretty stupid apparently.

Then I got an idea. The little thing was so tiny that he was falling way to fast for Aerrow to reach him. But I was bigger...

"Dude! Hang onto my back!" The little guy nodded, and climbed onto my back, gripping at my shoulders as I turned myself around to face the ground. I spread myself out, like I was about to do a belly flop in the pool. It seemed like it worked, because I could hear him chirp in delight as the sound of a skimmer got louder. Suddenly, an arm whipped around my waist, yanking me up. Everything slowed as I realized we were floating back up. I glanced up, knowing that Aerrow was the one holding me. He let go when I got myself up onto the wing and sat on it. The little blue thing chirped and jumped onto Aerrow's back. He was smiling so hard, I thought it would get stuck like that.

"Thanks dude." I said. Aerrow turned towards me with a look on his face that kinda reminded me of when my parents were disappointed with me.

"That was crazy, you know that?" Yeah...I sorta knew that. I was about to apologize when he smiled. "Thanks."

I shrugged. Even though my heart was still pounding in my chest, I was relaxed now. Plus, I felt proud. I just jumped off a ship without a parachute or anything to save a pet. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad. And maybe I could get something to eat when we got back on the Condor. I was freaking hungry. _(A/N: I'm actually very hungry right now.)_

* * *

><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

I don't even know what to think of her now. That stunt was something I would have pulled if I had the glider with me. I may be a daredevil, but at least I plan ahead. She just went and jumped without thinking about it. When I do things like that, I make sure there's a chance that I could get out of it alive.

But she saved Radarr, and helped us out with the talons. Maybe she wasn't as bad as I thought. I could already see the rest of the squad standing on the runway, so I'm guessing they got that last talon to.

One things for sure, I had about a million new questions for this girl, and still no answers.

* * *

><p>There ya go guys. xD Next chapter is going to be a lot more talking.<p>

Don't forget to review and check out the story I mentioned earlier!

Especially review. Because reviewing is nice and I will love you forever if you do.


	10. Animal lover who eats like a cow

I'm not sure about this chapter. xD I'm _still_ tying to decide whether or not a pairing would be a good idea.

Also, I would like to say that I am doing commissions on my deviantart to raise money for college. All info on commissions are on my page, which you can find a link to on my fanfiction profile. Commissions would be greatly appreciated!

Alright, on with the story. xD

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><p><strong>Junko's POV<strong>

And I thought I ate a lot...

Finn, Radarr, Aerrow, and I had all decided to get something to eat. Shubbz pretty much followed us into the kitchen. I'm guessing she was hungry because for the past hour, we've all been sitting here just watching as she inhaled food. I was starting to worry that I wouldn't get any.

I still didn't feel right about Shubbz. Aerrow and Piper seemed to be okay with her now, and Radarr was hanging off of her like she was Aerrow. Makes sense though, I had seen her jump off the Condor to save him. I would be pretty grateful to.

Something about the way she acted made me nervous though. Yesterday, she was mean, and didn't seem to care about any of us. And today, she's jumping off the ship to save us. Actually, she had been much more polite today than she was yesterday.

But I'm still not sure of her. Of course, I'm not really sure of anyone who can eat as much as me and isn't a wallop.

"Hey." I jumped, and realized Shubbz was talking to me.

"Y-Yes?" I couldn't help but flinch. She scared me a little bit. I think she noticed to.

"I ain't gonna bite ya." She rolled her eyes. "I just remembered that I didn't know your name." Didn't Piper go over names yesterday? I looked over at Aerrow, who just shrugged. I would've looked to Finn for reassurance, but he was busy picking out dirt from under his nails. I turned back towards Shubbz, who had one eyebrow raised.

"My...My name's Junko."

"Oh. Okay." Suddenly, she turned her head towards Aerrow. I'm guessing she was done talking to me. "And, uh, the green dude that fainted yesterday... What's his name?"

"Stork."

"What about this little guy?" She smiled and pointed to Radarr, who was standing on her shoulder, sniffing her food.

"That's Radarr." This time Aerrow smiled. I was trying to smile, but Shubbz still scared me a little. Maybe she wasn't so bad though, she had saved Radarr, and she was trying to be nice today. Still, I wouldn't be absolutely sure about her until I knew more about her.

"I'm gonna go work on the skimmers." I said, getting up from the table. Maybe if I gave it time, I'd feel better around her. Aerrow nodded and Finn gave a quick "See ya." before going back to his nails.

"Bye Junko!" Okay, that really made me jump. I turned around to see Shubbz smiling at me. I forced myself to smile back, and rushed out.

* * *

><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

"He doesn't like me." She said this without question. I don't know if this upset her or not.

"I'm sure he likes you, he's just not sure of you. Wallops are like that." She only glanced back up at me, then continued to eat. "We may have to go find some more food though.." With a mouth full of food, she looked up and giggled.

"I do love my food." Although it sounded more like 'I roo ruff ra roo' because of all the food in her mouth. She swallowed, and before shoving more in her mouth, she glanced back up at me, looking a little bit concerned. "How did you guys find this food anyways?"

"It's actually a long story." After being lost in the great expanse without good food, we had always made sure to be full of food, and to only eat it sparingly if we knew it would be a while till we could get more.

Crap! We were going to be out of food now. Where would we find food in the Farside? This girl was going to eat the last of it! Shubbz seemed to know what I was thinking of though, because she put down the fork, and pushed the plate away.

"I know a place. I got food there once, it was pretty good." She leaned back on the chair, kicking her feet up on the table. One had to admire her casual attitude about ...everything. "I can take you guys there."

"May want to do it soon, I think you ate more food than Junko eats." Finn jumped in. Shubbz only smiled.

"It speaks!" She threw her hands up in the air, as if proclaiming a miracle. Finn rolled his eyes. He leaned in, seeming to be more interested in the conversation now.

"Where'd you learn to shoot like that?" She giggled again, and looked up, like she was remembering something.

"When I was little, my dad built this shooting range."

Finn seemed to find this amazing."He built a shooting range?" Shubbz only waved her hand.

"It was just some bottles set up on a log. It was still some good practice. I used to sit out there and watch him shoot the bottles. Then one day, he taught me how to shoot." She looked so thoughtful, you could almost forget that she ate more than half of our food in one hour.

"You didn't shoot any animals? Just bottles?" Shubbz seemed to be disgusted by Finn's question.

"No way. I love animals too much." With this, she reached up and scratched Radarr on the head, who had curled around her neck. I had never seen him so comfortable with anyone but me. I was okay with it though. Radarr was obviously very grateful for her daring rescue. I was pretty grateful to. Which reminded me...

"Why did you jump? You know you could have died, right?" She only shrugged in reply. After a moment, she glanced back up at me.

"Don't you ever have those moments where you can't think, you just gotta act?" She raised an eyebrow. How would she know anything about me? I know I'm a bit of a daredevil, but-

"Oooh but dude! That was so awesome. You just like ran straight off the runway!" Finn was suddenly very animated as he explained what happened in detail, even though we were all there to see it. I was still stuck on her comment. She was hinting at already knowing all about me, yet I didn't know anything about her. Well, except for her loving animals, but whatever. I didn't like that feeling.

Right there and then, I decided that I would question her later tonight. I was too tired of waiting for the answers, and I knew that if I didn t ask, I would never know what I wanted to know. She wasn't willing to reveal much on her own.

"Hey, how old are you guys?" She asked me, pretty much ignoring Finn.

"Well, all of us are fifteen, except Stork. I'm pretty sure he's in his twenties. And I'm not sure how old Radarr is..." She seemed very surprised. "Why, how old are you?" She laughed this time.

"I'm almost seventeen. I was about to say that you were sorta cute, but I think your age pretty much kills it for me." Okay, now both Finn and I were surprised. I could hear Finn whisper "_seventeen?_" in disbelief. I was pretty sure she was just a very developed thirteen year old. And did she just call me cute? You know, I don't mind that a girl older than me found me cute. I don't usually think about girls as often as Finn does, but it was still flattering. If not a bit awkward. Finn was apparently still stuck on the fact she was older than us. She sure didn t act like it. She was like an oversized kid, of course, so was Junko, but that was different.

I was about to ask her more, when I heard the clanking of shoes behind me. They were soft clanks though, so I figured it was Piper. For some reason, Shubbz froze, staring up behind me. I turned to see Piper standing there, looking at Shubbz like she was about to start an interrogation.

"Hey Shubbz. Can you come help me with something? I figured since you knew about the frost crystals, you would be able to help me with this."

Shubbz slowly got up, making Radarr squawk in protest at being disturbed. He scurried over the table to perch on my shoulder. I felt better, it just didn't feel right to see Radarr sitting on someone else's shoulder. Not that I was jealous or anything...

Both girls left the room. I looked at Finn, who was giving both of them a confused look as the door closed. He looked over at me, as if asking what was wrong. I only shrugged. I had no idea what was happening either. I would have to ask Piper about it later. Not having much else to talk about, we both sat there in silence for a minute.

"Wanna go do some target practice?" Finn asked.

Hell yeah, I wanted to do some target practice.

* * *

><p><strong>Piper's POV<strong>

I had spent the last hour trying to figure out how to go about this. That talon knew her, and I wanted to know why. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit interested in how much she knew about crystals. She followed me, but kept her distance in the process. I could see how nervous she was. It only made me more suspicious.

We got to my room, and I stood at the door, waiting for her to go inside. After she was in, I entered, the door closing behind me.

"That talon knew you." I stated. She said nothing, but looked at the floor. "Why?"

Her eyes darted back and forth. Finally, she let out a sigh, and plopped down onto my bed.

"You promise not tell any of the guys?"

"If it puts any of us in danger, then I'll have to tell them." She dropped her head. After a moment, she looked back up at me. I still stood there, with my hands on my hips.

"I...I was a talon."

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><p>This is one of the meaner cliffhangers I've done.<p>

And the bad thing is, I don't know if I'll be able to get the next chapter up soon. However, if I get some ore reviews, I could be motivated to get the next chapter up tomorrow...

Also, I'm putting up a pole on my profile for pairings. I need to know about this. I'm close to making a pairing, although I'm iffy about it because I know some people don't like it when an OC is paired with a canon character. I used to be one of those people actually. xD That and their age difference makes me hesitate to...but...now I'm rambling.

So yeah.

REVIEWS. NOW.

Please. ;_;


	11. Loony Shaeloon

Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait...again. To tell you the truth, I was beginning to get somewhat discouraged by the lack of reviews, but of course when I think of threatening to stop the story, more people review. You guys are like mind readers or something.

Another thing, I just decided to write this up like 2 minutes ago. That's what I do with these stories, I never have a plot, I just write whatever pops into my head.

I'd also like to say that I'm writing this on my mom's laptop, since my laptop is dead. I'm going to have to get a new one soon.

But I would still like I thank you guys for the wonderful reviews, I really really appreciate them!

Now, on with the story!

You all know I don't own Storm Hawks, because we'd be on season 4 by now if I did.

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><p><strong>Piper's POV<strong>

I wasn't sure if I heard her correctly. I hope I didn't hear her correctly.

"I'm sorry...could you say that again?" She sighed and continued to look down at the floor, like a puppy that had been scolded.

"I...used to be a talon."

Damn it.

It wasn't the fact that she used to be a talon that was bad, I mean, Lynn was a talon. But Lynn was a kid, and not as experienced as Shubbz seemed to be. Shubbz was older, had weapons, and so far, had not been the most trustworthy character. I took a step back, either in repulse or to get a running start to the bridge, I wasn't sure. She seemed to notice this, as she hung her head lower and sighed again.

"You're going to kick me off the ship, aren't you?" She asked, not bothering to look at me. Surprisingly, I couldn't find the answer to that. I wasn't sure if I could trust her, but we needed her. She still knew where Cyclonis was. But even that could be a trap. Nothing was very believable right now.

"You said 'used to be'. Why'd you leave?" I questioned with a raised eyebrow. She looked up this time, sighing for a third time.

"Remember that night when I asked you if you had ever wondered if you were on the right path?" I stayed silent, but nodded. "Being a talon...It just didn't feel right. I didn't feel like I was in the right place. There was that, and I didn't like the way I was living. Everyday was the same routine, get ordered around by the bosses, deal with a dozen other stupid men, risk your life for almost no purpose, and then go to sleep so you could do it all over again in the morning. I couldn't live like that." She finished this in a whisper and dropped her head, and even though this would probably come back to bite me in the butt, I pitied her. If I had thought about it more without all the emotions whirling around, I would have questioned her more. What if she was lying about that to? I wouldn't know. Instead, I walked over and sat down on my bed next to her. She kept her head down.

"I have another question." I could see her frown deepen at this. Yes, I had just found out she used to work for Cyclonis, and yes, the emotions were probably having an effect on me, causing me to be overly sympathetic, but for the most part, I believed her story. Besides, she may have experience, but I doubt she could take on our whole team if it would come to that. And what was it that I had said to her that night? To take chances? Well, I was taking a chance by believing her. Of course that didn't mean I was done with the questions. I still had another one that had been on my mind since I had learned her name."I mean no offense by this, but uh...is Shubbz the name you were given or is that a nickname?"

She snapped her head up, looking at me with probably the most confused face I had ever seen. She seemed to get it though, as the corners of her mouth twitched upward.

"Shubbz is a nickname. I never liked my real name." She laughed at this. I couldn't help but smile.

"So...what is your real name?"

"Promise not to tell anyone?"

"Promise." She leaned in towards my ear.

"Okay...my real name is Shaelyn."

"..Shaelyn? That's a pretty name though!" She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"No it's not! I've always hated that name!"

"Why?" She leaned in again as if she was getting ready to reveal another secret.

"When I was little, the other kids used to call me Loony Shaeloon." Oh...That's a valid excuse to hate a name. I laughed, and she rolled her eyes again. "Gee, thanks."

"I'm sorry..." I was giggling now.

"Sure you are..."

"I am!" We were still both smiling.

This was a nice change actually, it reminded me a lot of when Cyclonis disguised herself as Lark, but this was different. It was more...real. Genuine. Maybe it was the mood I was in, but in that moment, things were okay. I had no worries about whether or not she was to be trusted, no worries about Cyclonis, nothing. It was like a much needed vacation for my mind, and there was no way I was ruining that.

"Another thing...how much do you know about crystals?" I bit my lip.

"Well, I know enough. I would love to know more about them though, I just never had the time to learn."

I couldn't help but gasp in excitement. I think I must have scared her to, because I was smiling so hard my face felt like it was going to split.

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><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

"You're such a cheater, Finn." He scoffed at this as we both walked towards the bridge, now done with our target practice. Finn had scored 167, trying to beat Piper's high score, before I tripped him up on his last throw. I, on the other hand, had only scored 85. This is why Finn was the sharpshooter, and I wasn't.

"Hey! Not my fault you're a lousy shot! Besides, you messed me up, so that makes you the cheater!" he pointed a finger at me accusingly, before sitting down at the table and propping his feet up. Stork grunted in disgust. I know he hated when Finn put any part of his body on the table, according to Stork, Finn was nothing but a walking germ pile.

Radarr had found his way to my shoulder again, though I wish he would go wash his face. Every time we do target practice, he eats about half of the berries, and half of that ends up on his face. Still, he got comfortable, and I decided to let it go.

As I sat down opposite of Finn, I heard a low rumble. Finn looked down at his stomach and held it. He groaned and slouched back against the seat. "We're out of food, aren't we?" My mind flashed back a few hours to when Shubbz had been shoving everything edible in her mouth.

"I think Shubbz said she knew of a place to get food."

"Or it's a place she could lead us into a trap." Stork muttered at the wheel. Ignoring him, I stood up, even though I had only gotten to sit for not even a minute, and made my way towards Piper's room. I remembered how nervous Shubbz had been when Piper came in there to talk to her. I wonder if something had happened. Piper seemed very serious as well, so something had to be wrong. I realized I had subconsciously quickened my pace towards her room. Shubbz couldn't have done something to Piper, right? She wouldn't, at least, I don't think so. Of course, Piper could handle things on her own very well. I'm sure she was alright. Still, I couldn't help but get anxious as I saw Piper's door in view.

As I got closer, I could hear giggling, seeming to come from both girls. Hesitantly, I knocked on the door. I heard Piper manage a "Come in!" between laughing fits. I opened the door to a teary eyed Piper. Though I knew it was from laughter, not sadness. She was on the floor, with a variety of crystals spread around her and Shubbz was...

Gone.

"Uhm...Where is-" Piper pointed up before I could finish, and I turned my gaze towards the ceiling.

Shubbz was holding a blue crystal, which I'm pretty sure was a floater, and in the other hand, she held an orange one. I remember Piper talking about that crystal, saying it amplified another crystals effects. It must have amplified the floater, because Shubbz was stuck to the ceiling as if it were Velcro. A huge smile was plastered on her face as she stared down at me.

"Sup?" She said casually. I couldn't help but laugh a little at the sight. And be relieved to. Obviously nothing bad had happened if the two of them were laughing like they had been best friends forever...still, I remembered what happened the last time when Piper made a new friend that happened to be a girl. But of course, Shubbz was different. And we hadn't come across her in an unusual way. Not that a semi-conscious girl flying towards our ship was very usual, but it was better than saving someone randomly in a storm.

"I hate to ruin the fun guys, but we need to get food." Before I could continue, Shubbz had dropped both crystals, apparently not anticipating the drop from the ceiling from doing so. This, of course, caused them both to burst out in laughter again. I'll admit, it was pretty funny, and I chuckled a bit, but we had to focus on serious things now. "Girls..." Piper calmed herself down, and not long after, Shubbz quieted down as well. I continued on. "Shubbz," She looked at me as I said her name, "You said you knew of a place to get food?"

Both girls stood up, and Shubbz nodded. "Yes I did, it's not that far from where you guys found me actually."

"Great! Because we are all out of food, so we need to get some more fast."

"No problem, I managed to find a map of this area, so it shouldn't be that hard to find." I could see Piper's face light up.

"You have a map of this place?" She said excitedly. Shubbz nodded and walked past me to stand in the hallway. I couldn't help but notice the fact that as she had walked past, she had let the back of her hand brush mine. I'm pretty sure she didn't do this on purpose, but it was worth noticing still. I snapped myself out of my thoughts as Shubbz spoke.

"If you want, after this I can let you study it." Piper let out a squeal. I don't think I had seen her this happy since we entered the far side.

"Really?" Was all she could say. I was about the say something as well, but both girls had already run towards the hangar bay, leaving me to stand there in Piper's room.

This had been a very weird day.

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><p>So there you go guys! Not a lot of action in this chapter, sorry about that. And I still have a poll going on whether my OC and Aerrow should be a pairing in this, and so far, most of you want me to do that. I'm still not sure, because of the age difference between them, but who knows what will happen.<p>

Again, I'd like to thank you guys for the reviews, they have helped me so much, I never would have gone this far without you guys!

Now I'm asking you guys to do it one more time, and you don't have to do it again. Until I put the next chapter up that is…


	12. Titles don't match seriousness of story

...

Surprise!

:D

Before we get started, I want to thank everyone for the reviews, you have no idea how much they mean to me, and they motivate me to continue the story. If it weren't for you guys, I wouldn't have gotten to chapter 12.

Thank you guys soooo much!

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><p><strong>Shaelyn's POV<strong>

I have no idea what the hand thing was about. Part of me keeps forgetting how dangerous it is for me to be around this boy, but I don't think I've had this much fun in a long time, so it's been easy to push unsettling things away. But of course, I didn't have the luxury of forgetting something like this. Only bad things could come of that, and I wasn't about to let that happen.

As Piper and I walked towards the bridge, with Piper going on about how cool it was that I had a map to a small area of the Farside, I made a mental note that I would have to make a list of things I could not allow myself to do. I wouldn't like it, but it was something that had to be done.

"Shaelyn?" I snapped out of my thoughts at the sound of my actual name.

"Don't say that too loud!" I hissed. Piper rolled her eyes at this, but didn't say anything about it.

"You just looked like you were spacing out. You okay?" I nodded, a little too quickly. She was harder to lie to, mostly because she payed much closer attention. I had already told her a lot today, and despite how well we hit it off, I wasn't willing to tell her anymore.

After what seemed like an hour, we got to the bridge. I hadn't noticed that Aerrow had been so close behind us until he popped up alongside us at the door. For a split second, I wondered if he knew about my name, but decided to let it go. I was starting to care a lot less about it. And Piper had a point. The name 'Shubbz' was...pretty weird.

"Uh, Shubbz?" Great, spacing out again. I looked up to see Aerrow staring at me as if expecting something. I had to admit, he was easy on the eyes. I had always had a weakness for people with lighter eyes to, so of course I would find myself ogling him from time to time. It was all I would let myself do. That hand touch, or whatever you could call it, was dangerous territory that I wasn't going to let myself step in. No matter how much I wanted to.

"Shubbz!" You've gotta be kidding me.

"Sorry. Kind of...tired." I said awkwardly as I realized we had been standing in the bridge for about a minute now, with everyone staring at me. Radarr was sitting over at the table playing some weird card game with Finn, while Junko leaned over them as if spectating. Stork still had his back turned, his hands gripping the wheel. Piper only smiled though.

"It's okay. I'm good with maps, so you can go take a nap until we get there. That sound okay?" That sounded more than okay to me.

"Sure, I just need to mark where this place is." Pulling out the folded map from my pocket, I unfolded it and set it flat down on the table next to Radarr and Finn, who had stopped their card game to look at the map.

"Alright." I pointed to a spot on the map between two pictures of hills, each sliced into different colors, which represented the different altitudes on them."These two hills are important. I found that the only safe was through here. I know it's a small fit, but trust me. The ways around the mountain are filled with those flying creatures that knocked me around earlier." I could see the wallop cringe at this, but I continued, trailing my finger along the right path. "This is the best path to take, since it seems to repel those creatures. Don't know why, but it does." Right at this time, Piper came out with a pen, which I took and put an 'X' on another multicolored hill. "That, is where you want to go."

I looked up to see Stork, his face about an inch away from the map, his face set in a cold glare. "How do we know you're not leading us into a trap, huh?" He raised an eyebrow at me accusingly. His suspicion didn't phase me though.

"I guess you don't. You'll just have to trust me on this. Or you can starve to death. Your call." His eyes narrowed even more, but instead of a retort, he slinkered back to the wheel, grumbling.** (A/N, my spell check doesn't think slinker is a word, but I'll use it anyways.)**

"Don't mind Stork. He's a little...paranoid." Aerrow said this as he leaned on the table, smiling. I only shrugged. I didn't exactly care who liked me on this ship. I seemed to gain the approval of Piper, Radarr, and Aerrow, so I was fine with that. I don't think Finn minded me that much either.

"Well, now that we've got the map, you can go rest for a little while. You look like you need it." Piper said as she rolled the map up. I couldn't help but look into one of the many reflective surfaces of the bridge to see that I had dark circles under my eyes that made me look like a raccoon. I definitely looked like I needed it. I was about to leave when Aerrow's voice stopped me.

"Maybe you should find a better place to sleep instead of the floor in the Hanger bay?" He looked over at Piper with a raised eyebrow, hinting at something. Piper seemed to get it.

"You can always sleep in my room." She didn't seem to mind the idea, in fact she looked excited, like a girl about to have a sleepover. I would have said yes, but the memory of Aerrow finding me screaming my head off made that yes out of the question. I must have made a face, because Aerrow's stare hardened. I looked back at Piper, who was still smiling, anxiously waiting for me to say yes. The two of them basically had me cornered. Well that, and the fact that I would much rather sleep on a carpeted floor than a hard steel one.

"I guess I cou-" Piper locked me into a hug, cutting my sentence off, while squealing in delight. It was like she had never had a girl stay over before. Thankfully, she let go before I lost my patience. I wasn't a fan of hugs. I could see Finn sitting over at the table, glaring in annoyance at Piper.

"That;s great! Oh my gosh, this will be so much fun, I know it!"

"Uhh, Piper?" Stork called from the helm, looking more irritated than usual.

"Oh, sorry! I almost forgot." She turned to me again, suddenly very calm. "Just go rest for now, and I'll come get you when we arrive." With another giggle, she turned and joined Stork by the helm.

"I'll just go get the stuff from the Hangar." I said, eager to leave the room and get some peace and quiet. Aerrow only put his hand on my shoulder, stopping me.

"I'll help." Uh, no you wont. I didn't need help carrying a few pillows and a blanket.

"It's fine, I can do-"

"I'll help." he said again, more forcefully. I got the feeling he wanted to have a talk with me. Oh joy.

As we both left, I could hear Finn yelling at Radarr for cheating.

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><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

The walk to the hanger bay was painfully silent. I had so many things I wanted to ask her, but right as we walked through those doors, my mind went blank. I realized that she kept her distance from me, more than she usually would. I could tell something was off, but how to bring it up? She seemed pretty intent on keeping her secrets, much to my dismay. As I glanced over at her, I remembered hearing something from Piper earlier.

"So, Shaelyn?" She cringed.

"Great. You heard that."

"I don't know why you care. I don't see anything wrong with that name." Personally, I thought that name suited her much better than 'Shubbz' did.

"I just don't like it."

Well that conversation ended quickly. I decided to try a more direct approach.

"Why do you keep so many secrets?" Okay, that came out bad.

"Why not? You don't need to know every detail about my life."

"Secrets about your name? Where you're from? Your nightmares?" I added in the last quietly, but she heard. She turned her head away from me, making it obvious she didn't want to talk.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Bullshit." She looked back at me, angry, but surprised.

"Fine. I've got some issues at the moment. Doesn't mean you need to know about them." As she snapped this at me, I could see how exhausted she was. She was too tired to keep up her casual attitude, but not tired enough to give answers. She looked ready to collapse, but she walked even faster to the hangar, wanting to keep a large amount of space between us. I was starting to get irritated at the behavior.

The rest of the walk was silent. Even as we got the Hangar, it was silent. She grabbed the blanket while I picked both pillows up and waited for her by the door. As she walked over, I glanced over at my skimmer, which Shaelyn had put back together yesterday. I was supposed to put more crystals in the fuel tanks, but I had forgotten to do so with all that was going on. I would have let it wait, except we were running out of them, and Finn had picked up a habit of using them non-stop to power up the stereos for his guitar.

"Damnit." I said out loud. Shaelyn only raised an eyebrow and kept walking. "I have to go put some crystals in my engine. Are you okay to-"

"I'm fine."

Okay then...

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><p><strong>Shaelyn's POV<strong>

Finally. I was able to get away from him. I was even more aware of how tired I was, and his questions did not make me feel better. He still wondered about my nightmare last night, and I should have expected him to, but a huge part of me was hoping he would have let that go. But of course not. He had to interrogate me. I don't know why I keep secrets, I just do. I didn't feel like explaining my personality or my life's story to him, and I never will.

I got to Pipers room just in time, because thinking about what had happened just made me angry. I didn't mean to get defensive about it, but I did, and now he had even more reason to suspect things.

I couldn't stay with these people. I thought I could stay with them a long time, but I now knew that it wouldn't happen. If I wanted to keep my secrets, I would have to leave them as soon as we found Cyclonis.

As I dropped the blanket onto the floor, I saw a pad of paper and a pencil on her desk. Grabbing both, I sat down on the floor and wrote the list.

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><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

It was a good idea to get the crystals when I did. There was just enough to fuel up my Skimmer. I was hoping that the place we were going to would have some crystals as well, although I doubted it. Still, it was good to hope.

After fueling up my Skimmer, I picked up the pillows from where I left them, and continued on to Pipers room. I was still wondering if I should try and get some answers again, but that didn't go at all like I had hoped. The only thing I found out about her today was her name, and that was because I heard Piper say it. I had a feeling that I wasn't going to get anything from this girl, and the thought aggravated me. I didn't like that I knew so little about this girl. It made it harder to trust her, and I hated being suspicious of people. It looked like her and Piper got to know each other really well, so why wasn't she talking to me? Why had she all of a sudden started avoiding me?

These thoughts didn't go away as I approached her door. Though when the door opened, I realized I wouldn't be able to ask her anymore questions now.

Once again, she had fallen asleep before I got back. I was fine with that though. I still didn't have answers, but I didn't expect her to stay awake that much longer. She looked half asleep on the walk to the hangar bay anyways.

The blanket was under her, meaning that she hadn't meant to fall asleep yet. Kneeling down next to her, I picked up her head again, less cautiously this time, because I knew now that she was a very deep sleeper. I grabbed one pillow and slipped it under her head, before slowly letting it rest on the pillow. I left the other one next to her, again just in case she wanted another one. I decided she didn't need the blanket as badly, since Pipers room was much warmer than the hangar bay. I was just about to stand up again when I noticed she held a crumpled paper in the hand next to her face. A pencil lay on the the blanket next to her, so I assumed she fell asleep while writing something.

Normally, I would leave it alone, but my curiosity was too much for me to ignore. Trying to be as silent as possible, I lifted the paper from her hand, and slowly unfolded it. It was a list.

_Things I cannot let myself do:_

_-Get too close with ANYONE._

_ -Tell anymore secrets._

_ -Forget. _

_-Be near Aerrow. At all._

_I cannot let my nightmares come true. I can't let him be hurt._

I dropped the paper from my hands.

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><p>WOOH FOR CLIFFHANGERS. And I'm gonna be doing the pairing, although the story isn't going to focus too much on it. It will be a subtle pairing, mostly because I don't like sappy romantic stuff. xD<p>

Okay. That's it. ._.

Go review. DO IT NOW.

Like, right now.

Please?

Pretty please with sprinkles on top?

:D


	13. Get yo butt back here

Back again! xD Life has been very hectic for me. I just started College, so I haven't had a whole lot of free time. But I managed to find time to write this up. Once again, I want to thank everyone for the reviews, I know I say this on almost every chapter, but they really mean lot to me, and without them, this story wouldn't have gotten past chapter 2. xD

*EDIT* I added a lot at the end. xD

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><p><strong>Radarr's POV<strong>

I don't know why I was playing a card game with Finn in the first place. He always cheats, especially when I'm playing! So, with a loud squawk, I ended the game and left Finn to clean it up. I was about to go over to Piper, but she looked busy with a map, and I'm pretty sure Junko went to the hangar bay to work on his skimmer. Stork was at the helm still, but I didn't feel like bothering him, so I went on a search for Aerrow. Him and that girl, I think it was Shubbz, had walked out a while ago to do something, although I forgot what.

As I made my way down the hall, I noticed how loud my stomach was growling. I really hope we're getting food soon, I'm not sure how much longer I can go without some food. I'm surprised Junko has gone as long as he has without food either, although maybe that's why he's been acting so skittish lately. I don't know why he has an issue with Shubbz. I haven't had a problem with her, sure she's a little weird, but she's a good person. At least, I think so. Of course, she did save me, so obviously I don't have a problem with her.

I almost crawled right past Aerrow as I was thinking, though he didn't seem to notice me either. I quickly scampered over to his side, walking with him. He was looking straight ahead of him, like when he does when he's deep in thought, and he looked a little angry. I noticed that he held a crumpled piece of paper in his hand, and it looked like he was holding on to it really hard to, and you could tell that his knuckles were white even though you couldn't see them.

Worried, I jumped onto his back and chirped. I could see a small smile come to his face, but then quickly disappear back into a frown. I chirped again and this time he glanced at me, putting his hand on my paw.

"I'm fine Radarr...I just need to think about something." He smiled again as he finished this. I nodded in understanding and hopped off his shoulder. He just needed some time alone. And I needed to find something to do. Maybe I could find something small to eat around here.

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><p><strong>Shaelyn's POV<strong>

I was lucky enough to get a nap in without any problems. And by problems, I meant nightmares. I really didn't feel like getting shaken awake, and then having to explain myself.

As I sat up a little bit, I realized that there was a pillow under my head. Aerrow must have put it there when I was asleep, because I didn't remember him coming in here at all. He may be very nosy, but I had to admit that he was a very kind person.

I shook my head. I couldn't be thinking about that again. I had already made a list about this kind of thing. I should probably hide that list to. I didn't feel like having to explain that list to someone if it was found.

As I sat up straight, I realized the list wasn't in my hand anymore. It must have fallen out of my hands when I was asleep, so I lifted up the blankets. It wasn't there, so I tried under the pillow next.

It wasn't there either. Half of me wanted to start panicking, but I knew that wouldn't do me any good. Maybe I never wrote the list? Maybe I just imagined it? At least, those theories would have worked if I hadn't just found the pencil on the floor next to me, a long with the pad of paper. There was a tear along the top of the pad, which means I must have wrote it already and torn it out. So where the hell was it? It had to be in this room somewhere, unless Aerrow took it...

Oh no. Hell no. It had to be in this room. I couldn't let him find that list. Everything I had kept secret would be ruined if he had that note. I was so stupid, why did I think making a note would do me any good? All it did was serve as proof that I was hiding something, and if Aerrow had it...

That was it. I had to get off this ship. That was the only way. I was sure that once everything was explained to them, they would either put me in jail or throw me off the ship anyway. I couldn't stay here anymore, I mean, I felt bad about just leaving like that, especially when they were counting on me, but I couldn't stay here if Aerrow had found out. I didn't want to hear what he had to say about that, because I knew it wouldn't be good.

By this time I had already stood up and was sprinting out the door, leaving the blankets in a tangled heap behind me. And of course, Aerrow would be standing at the end of the hall, walking my way already. As he saw me, he seemed to realize what was happening, and he started running at me, the wrinkled paper in hand. Without thinking, I took off towards the hangar bay, hoping that I would be able to outrun him, though I could hear the clinks of his shoes getting closer.

I had almost turned the corner when he tackled me. We both slammed to the ground, and for a second I could actually feel the wind being knocked out of me. Even though I knew he had me, I kicked and punched, most of the time hitting the air, but I knew I had gotten him a few times because I would hear him grunt. A small part of me actually thought I could fight my way out of this and get away, until my arms were pinned up by my head. I tried kicking again, but he had already put his calves on my knees, making it nearly impossible to kick up. But of course, me being the stubborn person I am, I still tried to move away, even though I was trapped. I wouldn't look at him either. I didn't want to see how angry he was with me, so I kept my eyes shut and struggled against the floor. His grip tightened on me.

"Just stop!" He yelled, startling me so much that I stopped moving. I finally glanced up at him, my eyes meeting his hard stare. We were both breathing pretty heavily, and the air was silent for a moment. I'll admit, if the situation were different, I would have loved this. But this was definitely not that kind of situation.

"If I let you go, will you promise not to run?" He said to me with an eyebrow raised. I had to think about that for a minute, but decided to take the better route. Reluctantly, I nodded, and he let go of my hands and got off of me. He was staring me still with those green eyes as I sat up, but I promised I wouldn't run. Besides, even if I did, he would just catch me again, and we both knew it. As I regained my composure, I couldn't stop myself from looking at the list in his hand. He must have noticed my gaze, because he held it out towards me. Before I could grab it though, he quickly moved it out of my grasp, and I looked up at his face again.

"You're going to tell me everything." This was an order, not a question. He kept the list up by his head, waiting for me to respond.

After a few beats, I sighed and looked at the floor. "Fine." There was no way out of this now. I had to tell him what he wanted to know, and then wait for my punishment. There was not other way. He was holding the list out to me again, this time letting me take it. I sat there for a moment with the wrinkled list in my hands as he stood up next to me. He held his hand out to me, and despite how much I wanted to smack him, I took his hand and stood up.

Without another word, he started walking, and I followed him, as the silence followed me.

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><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

To say that I was surprised by that list would be an understatement. A big understatement. I wasn't sure if this girl was crazy or if there was an actual issue, but I was going to find out, and I was going to find out now. I was going to make sure that she would not leave my room without telling me everything. I was tired of the secrets, and now, I had a reason to know, especially if it involved my safety. It could even involve my squadrons safety for all I knew.

She was quiet behind me, and I had to glance back a few times to see if she was till there. At least she knew she couldn't avoid it this time. She seemed to know I was irritated to, and she was right. I was irritated that she had been hiding things from me, and the fact that she punched me in the stomach a few times didn't help.

After what seemed like hours, we reached my room, and I stepped aside to let her walk through. I could tell she wanted to run, but she walked in anyways, and sat down on my bed. I walked in and stood in front her with my arms crossed, and waited for the door to close behind me.

Once again, we were silent for a few minutes. Shaelyn fidgeted with the paper in her hands.

"Start at the beginning. What did you do before this?" She sighed again.

"I...was a talon. And before you say anything," She held up her finger." I left on my own. I already told Piper this...because one of the talons we fought knew my name...and she heard. But I promise that I don't work for Cyclonis anymore. I never liked working for her..." She looked up at me with pleading eyes. While part of me was still suspicious, the way she said it made it that much easier to trust her. And if Piper already knew and didn't tell me...then that would mean there was no danger, right? I would have to talk to Piper about this later.

"Please..." I snapped my head up at her again. She was talking the same way she had when I had found her in my room the first day she was here. I sighed and moved to sit next to her on my bed.

"I...believe you... What about the nightmares?" She went completely silent as I said this, and if I didn't know better, she looked scared. Still even if she was scared, I had to know. I looked down at her hand, which rested on her thigh. I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I put my hand over hers. I could tell she was uncomfortable with how close I was, but I needed her to tell me. "Shaelyn?" She closed her eyes.

"I...had been having nightmares since I was a little kid. I had no idea what they meant for a long time...all I knew was that it scared me. It was always the same thing...It was so dark..." She stopped and looked away. I knew she was trying not to cry. I was about to say her name again, but she continued. "Just...voices everywhere. They always said the same thing. I would try to run away..but it was so dark. All I could do was listen to it..." She breathed in heavily, ad I could see tears slowly roll down her face now.

"What did they say?"

"'Let no harm fall upon him.' All these pictures would flash in front of me, all of it of this boy and Lightning Strike. When I was little, I didn't know who the boy was. The voices would keep going, and all these images would fly around me...it was only until recently I realized that...the boy was..."

"Me." I finished for her. She nodded weakly, sniffling. No matter how unfriendly she had been with me lately, I couldn't stand to sit there and listen to someone cry. I know this didn't go well the first time, but it was worth trying. I pulled her close to me like the other night and hugged her, and this time, she didn't stiffen up. She only resumed speaking.

"I try so hard to forget it, but it keeps coming back. I can always hear those stupid voices saying 'You're not safe' and 'stay away'. And that's why I was fixing your skimmer...I was going to leave. I just...I don't want to hurt anyone. I just...I'm...I'm not safe...I c-" She broke into sobs against my shoulder. My mind was still trying to wrap around what she had just told me. I did believe her...but the whole thing was still hard to think about. I didn't know if she was mentally unstable, or if I actually had something to worry about. I wanted to say something to her to calm her down...but I couldn't think. All I could do was hold her for the moment. It was so...weird to be sitting here with this girl. Even though I was usually good with figuring people out, I still couldn't predict her actions. When she came here, she was rude, and had that "I'm better than you" attitude. And now she's a scared girl, sitting here, crying into my shoulder. A girl whose been plagued by nightmares since she was little, nightmares telling her that she would cause harm to...me. Something about this girl interested me so much that I wanted to ask every question in the world, and even though she wouldn't tell me in the beginning, it only fueled my curiosity. I don't know if it was the fact that we had been stuck in the Farside for so long or what, but even though this girl was so...so frustrating to me, I couldn't help but feel glad that someone like her had come along. It was a feeling that both worried and intrigued me.

As she sobbed and trembled in my arms, I whispered into her hair.

"It's okay."

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><p>HOW FREAKING CUTE.<p>

Kay. That's it.

Reviews make my day happy. :D

And, the more you review, the faster I'll update. ;D


	14. Dem doors, they is crying

I LIIIIVVVEEEE.

Okay, so, little bit of a lack of reviews on the last one, but we'll see what happens. Honestly, I almost forgot this story existed because of how busy I've been with College lately.

BUT.

I forced myself to write this today. :D

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><p><strong>Shaelyn's POV<strong>

This was weird.

This was more than weird. This was freaky. And I liked it. I can't actually remember the last time I felt so secure, so...

Safe.

I pushed away from him, only briefly glancing at his confused expression. I had already broken a few promises I made to myself, and I wasn't about to break anymore. I couldn't let myself be so close to him. Every moment I spent in his presence was a moment that something terrible could happen to him. I just wouldn't let myself forget something like that so easily.

"What?" I snapped out of my thoughts to look back up at him, my hand in his. I pulled my hand from his as if it was on fire, which surprised him.

"I cant...I need to stay away from you." I felt so stupid telling him all of this. The realization of what I had told him hit me, and I couldn't deal with it. At least not right now.

"You really think you're a danger to me?" He asked skeptically. He didn't believe me...

I didn't say anything else as I left, leaving him in his room alone.

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><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

I don't even know what just happened here. My mind was still trying to catch up with all that I had just experienced, but it was jumbled, like a puzzle with missing pieces.

I wasn't sure how seriously I should be taking this either. Was she really a danger to me or was it all just in her head? She had told me everything and still, I felt as thought I knew nothing. All I knew was that this girl was either mentally unstable, or she was an actual threat to me. But how could she be? I had easily pinned her in the hallway, and I knew that I could beat her in a fight any day, so why was she a threat? She wasn't even a very good sharpshooter. But the dreams she had been having obviously scared her a lot...

The way she had been screaming that one night made it clear that she was scared. But was she scared of the dreams? No, she was truly scared of getting me hurt, and this was something I just couldn't figure out.

After what seemed like hours of piecing all of this together, I decided it would be something that I would have to wait for to see.

Whether I believed I was in actual danger or not was something I hadn't decided on yet.

* * *

><p><strong>Stork's POV<strong>

I don't know how anyone could put up with Finn's whining right now. Even Piper was managing to ignore it, her face buried in one of her many books about crystals. Though I did notice the glares she would give him from time to time. Junko was unusually quite, it was either the lack of food or mindworms. I was settling with mindworms.

Hell, we've all probably been infected with mindworms. No doubt that _girl_ brought it on board.

Speaking of her, I hadn't seen her or Aerrow for quite some time. I couldn't help but let my mind wander to all the horrible things she must be doing to him. She's probably brainwashing him right now so that she can kidnap him and take him to Cyclonis so she he can be used against us, thus causing our inevitable demise and the fall of all mankind as we know it...

Yeah, that was totally happening right now. I knew we were all doomed from the start anyways, so there wasn't much of a point to go and stop her.

I shook my head, I was making myself paranoid again. As soon as I went to my room to get the necessary..._items_..to deal with Finn's whining and Junko's mindworms, I would feel a lot better.

As I shuffled along the hallway, which would need to be sprayed later for a mutated form of deck fleas that I was sure had gotten on board during our little rescue mission of that girl, I could hear the faint sound of footsteps approaching me.

In any other situation, I would assume it was Aerrow. But I couldn't let myself be fooled with her on board. I had to be quick witted, stealthy, and be ready to expect the unexpect-OOF.

Well, so much for that.

It turns out that I had managed to walk straight into someone, and judging on the size and softness of that person, it had to be the one I did not want to run into. Looks like I would be meeting my doom ahead of schedule today.

Both of us groaned as we sat up, and I turned to glare at her. Imagine my surprise when I saw that she had been crying, obvious tear trails rolling on her face. She glanced at me before getting up again to walk past me.

"Sorry.." She mumbled, not even looking at me.

Well. I would have to go sterilize myself now.

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><p><strong>Finn's POV<strong>

Was I the only one on the ship who needed food to survive? Nobody was complaining about the lack of food, not even Junko! Of course, he was just sitting there like he was dead, which was sort of creepy...

But seriously, everyone else seemed to be okay with the fact that we had no food until we found this place that Shubbz was talking about. Piper had her face practically stuck in a book about some dumb crystals while Stork had gone off to do whatever it is he does in his spare time.

"Aren't you supposed to be looking at the map that Shubbz gave us?" I asked Piper accusingly. She only glanced up at me with a look of annoyance before going back to her book.

"We're on a straight course right now, there's really nothing to be looking at." Excuses. She just wanted to read her stupid book. I looked over to Junko, who was sitting on the opposite side of the table, staring down at his hands. I was a little worried about him...it had been a while since he had eaten something, and usually he's always got food in hand.

"Junko, how you holding up?" He didn't even look at me as he replied.

"Eh, kinda hungry...but okay." Uh, yeah, I didn't buy that.

"Seriously dude, what's wrong?" Besides the food situation obviously. I could tell when something was bothering my buddy, and something was definitely bothering him right now. He hesitated before answering me this time, glancing over his shoulder at the hallway.

"I'm just...not really sure about Shubbz..." I could see Piper look up from her book when he said this. I knew her and Piper were already 'Best friends forever', so I was kinda interested at where this was going. To tell you the truth, I felt indifferent about the girl. She wasn't that nice when we first talked, sure she was little funny and stuff, but she was odd. Which is weird to say since we all have to deal with Stork's..._oddities_.

"Why's that?" Piper had joined into the conversation now, actually putting down her book. Junko looked back down at his hands again and shrugged.

"I just...get this weird feeling about her. Like..something bad is going to happen." He mumbled.

"Dude, you sound like Stork right now. Don't be so paranoid." Seriously, dude. Don't get me paranoid to.

"You just don't know her, that's all. I bet if you get to know her, you'll feel better about her." Piper said with a smile. I rolled my eyes. She was always so sure of herself it was annoying. Her and Aerrow. Which reminded me...

"Where the hell is Aerrow?" Piper narrowed her eyes and looked over at me with a face that said '_do you have to yell?_'. And yeah, I had to yell. It was helping to get my mind off of how damn hungry I was.

"I think he went to talk to Shubbz about something."

"_Ooh la la..._" Piper rolled her eyes when I said this.

"Seriously Finn? You are so childish. Aerrow was going to ask her more questions."

"Yeah, 'questions.'" I made quotation marks with my fingers. Piper scoffed in disgust and went back to reading her book.

She was right though. Everyone knew Shubbz had the hots for me anyways.

* * *

><p><strong>Piper's POV<strong>

Finn could be so childish sometimes. Okay, more like all the time. Although the recent conversation made me wonder what Aerrow had wanted to talk to her about in the first place. Would she tell Aerrow what she told me? And if she did, would Aerrow be upset that I hadn't told him yet? I'm sure he wouldn't be too angry, maybe a little disappointed...but still...

She seemed to be more open with me than she was with anyone else. Maybe it was the fact that I was a girl, although she avoided Aerrow like the plague. I don't know what it was, but earlier Aerrow had been sort of spacey to, even a little bit angry. I guess he was thinking about the food shortage, I mean, I am to. I may not look like it, but I am. I'm just trying to do more productive things with my time instead of sitting there whining. And poor Junko, he hasn't eaten as much as he usually would. He was so quiet to...It was almost scary.

I'm sure that once we find food, everyone will feel better, and then we can focus on finding Cyclonis. I still can't believe we were lucky enough to find someone with knowledge about Cyclonis's whereabouts. Maybe things were starting to look up, and hopefully we would be able to go back home soon. The Farside was an amazing place, but the isolation that we've all been feeling has been hard to get through, though I doubt Aerrow has had a problem with it. Knowing him, he probably loves this places, due to how unexplored it is. Still, it would be nice to get in touch with a familiar face again, and the Farside was very lacking in familiar faces.

Ah whatever, no use focusing on those things right now. Might as well finish my book.

* * *

><p><strong>Radarr's POV<strong>

I don't think I've ever paced the hallways that long before. There was absolutely nothing to do right now. Finn was annoying everyone, Junko was sulking, Piper was reading, and Atmos knows what Stork was thinking of. The only people I couldn't find was Aerrow and that girl, which worried me a little bit. What if something had happened? Would that girl really try to hurt Aerrow? I couldn't deal with all this suspense!

It was then that I could hear the sound of a faint sniffle, something that I would have missed if I didn't have such acute hearing. The pitch was definitely that of a females, so I could tell that it was that girl.

And I was right. As I stood there listening to the sound of sniffling and footsteps get louder, Shubbz walked around the corner, her eyes puffy and red. She had been crying...but from what? I didn't think she was the type to cry about just anything, so there must be a reason. Cursing my inability to speak, I followed her into Piper's room, where she was staying now. She still hadn't noticed me as she fell onto the pile of blankets and pillows on the floor, sniffling once more. She sat there for while, not saying anything, so I decided to make my presence known.

I slowly trotted over to her side, brushing my face up against her hand which rested her on her leg. She smiled a bit and scratched the back of my ears. I purred at that, and she giggled. When she stopped, I crawled to sit in front of her, taking on a face that said "_whats wrong?_" Hopefully she would know what I was trying to say.

"What's with the face, little guy?" No, apparently she didn't get it. So I tried something else. Getting up on my hind legs, I walked over to her and put a paw on her damp cheek. "Oh..." she said, finally understanding me. "It's nothing...just got some things to deal with right now. I'll be okay." She finished this with a weak smile. I knew there was something more, but interrogations were something I failed at.

A big part of me was irritated that I didn't know the whole story, but I knew that I could try and get some answers out of Aerrow. At least he understood me better than she seemed to.

"Don't worry...I'll be okay." She said this more to herself that time.

* * *

><p>Deep in the heart of the Farside, fog passed through a dense jungle that teemed with life. A creature slithered around the forest floor, eyes glowing with excitement. In the distance, the call of an animal could be heard, it's cry echoing through the blue mossy trees, leaves shuddering in the cool wind. In the center of the glowing jungle stood a tree that towered all others, it's branches reaching out and above the forest canopy. A small monkey-like animal with tusks protruding from its mouth, eyes wide and endless, crawled up the branch before leaping off to the next one.<p>

The forest is eerily silent, as a lone man in a hooded cloak sprints across the ground, nearly trampling the slithering creature. He pants heavily as he makes his way towards the large tree, slowing down as he reaches the base of the trunk. Before continuing, he looks around, his eyes darting every which way. Assured that there is no one else, he reaches over to a stone that rests besides the tree, covered with moss. Lifting the moss off the stone, he can see a small lever jutting out from it. The man switches the lever, and a low rumble is heard, creatures darting away from the unfamiliar sound.

The man looks around one more time as a section of the trunk is moved aside to reveal a door way. Wasting no time, he continues through the door, flipping another lever that hangs on the inside of the tree trunk. The same rumble is heard as the wood is shifted back into place. As his eyes adjust to the sudden darkness, he looks up into the tree, a section of which had been hollowed out. The once magnificent tree will die soon, as it's roots have been dug out to make room.

As darkness fades away, the hooded man makes his way down stone stairs, starting just a foot away from the hidden door. The stairway seems endless and the tired man uses all his strength to leap down them, not wanting to waste any time. Minutes go by as the man bounds down the stairs, tripping but regaining his balance as he nears the bottom. The sounds of machinery and workers can be heard now, the noises bouncing from wall to wall.

Out of breath, he slows his pace to small steps, not wanting to use all of his energy up. Still hooded, he approaches a large door with intricate detail carved into it. Two guards covered in black on each side of the door nod at him as they step aside, allowing him to step up to the door. Their glowing eyes watch his every move. Hesitantly, he knocks softly, gradually becoming stronger at the end of the knock.

"Enter." The voice flows through the door, the sound cold as it reaches him. Slowly, he opens the doors. Despite being made of stone, they creak at the use, as if they are crying out to him. Stepping inside, he lowers the hood on his cloak and stops at the center of the cold room. The sounds of the doors closing behind him only emphasis the silence that falls around him. A faint ticking can be heard and he looks around the dark room, waiting to be given permission to speak. His gaze falls on the figure at the front of the room, back turned towards him.

The voice returns, cutting through the silence like a knife. "Report." It is short, but it is enough. The man clears his throat, almost flinching at the sound it made.

"I have news on the Storm Hawks. They are heading towards our location." He paused, as the figure continued to sift through the numerous maps and blueprints that lay on the desk in front of them. "We believe they are being led here by one of our own...a girl who left us some time ago." Although he could not see it, the figure smiled, knowing exactly who this man was referring to.

"Good."

The man's eyes widened in surprise. Before he could ask why, the figure answered his question, a small trickle of humor forming in it's voice.

"This girl is going to help us greatly. Whether she wants to or not." At this, the voice cackled, and the man flinched slightly in fright. "Go inform my guards that I will need them in here soon. I have a little present for our traitor."

The man stood there for a moment, trying to think of what the figure was up to, not aware that its patience was starting to run thin.

"Do you have all of that?" The voice snapped, prickling the mans ears and startling him. Quickly, he regained his composure and bowed in respect and fear.

"Yes, Master Cyclonis."

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><p>.<p>

We be gettin' somewhere in da story now.

And we'll get a lot farther if I see those reviews. ;D


	15. Continued! Also Hello internal conflict

SO HI GUYS. I thought some more about it and decided I would continue the story. I was already thinking of picking it back up when I started to get more reviews, so that helped. :) Kinda forgot how much I liked to write this thing. xD

ANYWAYS, LETS GET ON WITH IT.

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><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

And I thought Shae was avoiding me before. Since our little talk, she had been making a point of not being in the same room as me.

To say it confused me would be an understatement. Yeah, she told me what that note was about, about her nightmares and why she couldn't be near me, but the answers hadn't done anything. It was like I was putting a puzzle back together, but each time I found one piece of it, I would suddenly lose another. It was frustrating, confusing, and...

Addictive. It was almost as if knowing more about her had become some kind of drug for me, and if I wasn't able to get it, I would feel the symptoms of withdrawal, like I was now.

What was the most frustrating about it was that I had no idea if I hated these feelings or not. Maybe some part of me didn't want to finish the puzzle?

I didn't know. All I knew was that I had to talk to her, and I was done playing this little game of cat and mouse.

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><p><strong>Piper's POV<strong>

These last few days had been weird. Shaelyn and I still talked a lot of course, I mean we were sharing a room now. She certainly was an interesting person.

I had found that she had frequent nightmares, which worried me little, but she had said that it was nothing to worry about, and I didn't want to annoy her. Besides, she would tell me if it was a real issue. I was able to ask her about her family and her childhood though.

I had learned that her parents live on Terra Atmosia, where her father worked as a teacher at a School of Archery, her mother a librarian. She told me about how she had run away at the age of 14 in search of adventure, only to find herself as a talon in the Cyclonian army a year later. She talked about the types of people she met there, most of them being idiots who had ideas of riches and atmosian conquest, while there were others who, like her, had wanted a change of pace, but found it in the wrong way. She hadn't made many friends there, since most of them would either leave or, unfortunately, die.

She had found it disgusting to watch her fellow talons grovel at the feet of the commanders, with the hope of rising above the ranks to be recognized by a master who clearly didn't, in her words, 'give a shit' about who was who. Most of them were cowards anyways, and wouldn't have made it. Many were doomed to a life of being the bottom rung of ladder, to be used as a punching bag for the rest of their days.

It was that reason, and the fact that she didn't agree with the conquest, that had made her decide to leave. She surprised me with this part though. I was pretty sure that the whole team was under the impression that once someone joined Cyclonia, there was no way out. When Aerrow and I had gone undercover at Talon Academy, he had told me that Top Dog, a higher ranking student, had mentioned that those who tried to leave would be thrown into the wastelands. It turns out that is was Top Dogs delusional idea of exile.

Apparently, if one wanted to leave Cyclonia, they would go through a process of signing papers and handing in uniforms. The reason most did not even think of this was because of that rumor of being thrown into the wastelands, a rumor that Master Cyclonis had allowed as a way of keeping her army.

Shaelyn explained that the only reason that she had went through the process was because she had heard Snipe joking about the fact that 'these talons were so stupid, they would believe anything.' It was then that she decided to step up and demand that she be allowed to leave the army, to which many officers showed their disgust. She was assaulted with insults and death threats from other talons for being a "Traitor", but since she didn't hold a high opinion of them to begin with, it didn't bother her.

All she had to do was sign on the dotted line, hand in her staff and uniform, and walk out the doors. Of course the officers would spread word that she had also been thrown into the wastelands in order to keep the others in their place.

It was her birthday on the day that she left the army, and she stated that it was the best birthday present she could ever have.

After that, she wandered the terras, finding jobs to do, as well as becoming an expert on living on her own, as she preferred not to stay overnight at others houses. She didn't really explain why though, and I didn't ask.

She had said that it was on Terra Xoam that she had found a portal to the Farside. She had said that she didn't know what it was at the time, but her 'damn curiosity' got to her. After that, she couldn't remember much of anything, since being knocked around by those flying beasts had probably caused some memory loss.

As she sat there and told me all of this, I was fascinated with how simple her history was. She came from a simple background, and pretty much stumbled her way here to us. It was amazing how things happen if you think about it. How certain events in your life lead you to where you are now.

It was at this point that I had asked why she was avoiding Aerrow. I had definitely noticed it, as did most of the team. Well, maybe not Finn, be he was in la la land most of the time, or he was using the back of a spoon as a mirror.

Apparently, this was not the right thing to ask. "Didn't want to talk about it" was what she said. And even though I was curious, I didn't pry. Sometimes if you wait long enough, the answers come to you.

I'm guessing Aerrow had a problem with that though, as he had been pacing around the entire Condor, as if on a search. When he would walk into the room, it was always "Have you seen Shae?", "Shae" being a nickname he had suddenly started using for her, to which we would either say "We saw her in this room" or "No, I haven't seen her." and he would continue his search. Shae would usually pop in right after Aerrow had left the room. Either he was lousy at finding people, or Shaelyn was good at hiding.

I was sitting at the bridge thinking about this, although I was supposed to be studying the maps put out in front of me, when Aerrow walked in, right on schedule. Before he could even open his mouth, I answered his questions without even looking up from the maps on the table.

"No, I haven't seen Shaelyn."

"That wasn't what I was going to ask." Uh huh, sure it wasn't. I was beginning to think Aerrow had a thing for Shaelyn. But now I sound like Finn, so, not going down that train of thought again. I straightened up to look at him this time.

"Then what is it?" I said with an eyebrow raised.

"Did...Shae say anything to you about why she was avoiding me?" Oh.

"I don't know...I had asked her about it, but she said she didn't want to talk about it." He looked down in the floor in thought. "Did...something happen?"

He snapped his head back up and looked at me for a moment, again, looking as though he were deep in thought. It was then that Finn popped in oh-so-conveniently, pretty much inserting himself into the conversation.

"I bet she rejected him." He said in a playful tone, to which Aerrow raised an eyebrow at.

"Okay Finn. Thanks for that input." He rolled his eyes and looked back at me, as if he was going to speak, but then shook his head and walked right out of the room.

"Finn, why did you have to do that?" Finn shot a glare at my direction.

"What, I don't know why he's so touchy all of a sudden!" and with that, he also walked out of the room, leaving me alone to get back to studying my maps.

But I had a feeling I wasn't going to be able to do that.

* * *

><p><strong>Finn's POV<strong>

Everyone has been in such a weird mood lately. I thought that by joking around, it would make everyone stop acting so weird, but apparently not. Aerrow had been running around the Condor like a madman, always asking where that girl was, I think her real name is Shae now or something...maybe more to the name but I really don't care anymore.

See, I'm not the curious type about this kind of stuff. Yeah, I'm curious about other stuff, but I don't really care whats going on between people. If it doesn't relate to me in some way, I don't care. But with Aerrow being all touchy and dumb, Junko acting like a ghost sitting in his room, and Stork and Piper being...well, Stork and Piper, I've been bored out of my mind.

I mean, right now I was just wandering around the hallways of the Condor, staring at the floor, the ceiling, basically anything to see if there was something new. If I had been paying attention to where I was going, I wouldn't have run right into Shae, who looked like she was heading straight to the bridge.

"Okay, is there a reason you're wandering around like your lost?" She asked me, in a not-so-nice way.

"You did something to Aerrow." I pointed a finger at her accusingly. She scoffed and shot me glare.

"Are you blaming me because I was a bitch to you?"

"_Was? To me?_ You're pretty much a bitch to everyone except Piper. You did something to Aerrow, maybe Junko, but yeah, what did you do?" She widened her eyes and looked at me like I was crazy.

"Okay, Sorry for being a bitch and stuff, I may have scared Junko at one point because I ran into him or something, I don't know why he's all weird now."

"What about Aerrow?"

"I didn't do anything!"

"Then why are you avoiding him?"

"What? I haven't been-Wha?" Okay, she was playing the stupid card. I know the stupid card, I'm very familiar with the stupid card, and I know when someone is using it.

"Stop acting stupid! I know you're avoiding him because you've happened to be in every room that Aerrow has just left when he was looking for you! That's why you're going to the bridge now, right? Oh my atmos, I knew it! I figured it out! It's because you rejected him, right? He hit on you, and you rejected him, and he got upset, so now you're avoiding him and all that stupid stuff! That's what happened! I knew it! Oh but guess what? I'm gonna tell! I'm gonna tell him! I'm gonna-"

"FOR THE LOVE OF ATMOS, SHUT UP PLEASE." She held a hand up as she said this, the other hand on her head as if she had a headache. With a quick "hmpf." I shut up. Since she said please, ya know?

"Okay. You're right about the avoiding part. No, he didn't hit on me, well I don't know if what happened could be considered flirting but, whatever. Please just don't tell him! I really don't want to talk about it, okay? I was planning on talking to him soon, I just need to think about things, okay?"

"So...do you like him?"

"What? Seriously? Are you serious? Okay, no, I guess not, okay?"

"...What about the Finnster?" I said with an eyebrow raised. She just turned around and left.

She totally wants me.

* * *

><p><strong>Shaelyn's POV<strong>

I can't believe how amazingly stupid that boy can be. Just...amazing.

Although he did figure out how I was avoiding Aerrow, so I'll give him that. Although his reason for why I was avoiding him was super far-fetched.

I had lied about liking Aerrow though...truth is that I was unfortunately very attracted to him. I say unfortunately because one, I'm almost 17, and he's only 15. Just too young. Two, he's a Sky Knight, and their not supposed to have relationships anyways, even if I wasn't a part of the squadron. And most importantly, three, I am still a danger to him. The fact that he didn't believe how serious the situation was irritated me, and if he was mellow about that, there was no way I could be around him.

If the situation was different, and I was younger, maybe it would have worked out, I have no idea. I don't even know if he see's me that way. And if he does, he really shouldn't because it. Will. Not. Work. Out.

I did have to talk to him though. Hiding from him was cowardly, even for me. Things had to be straightened out, and I had to get it into his thick head that this was an issue. I had told him so much already, why was he still so curious? Am I gonna have to write a freakin' biography for him or something? I already had a story telling session with Piper, which was fine, because Piper's pretty cool.

Even when I had started screaming in my sleep one time, she had only woken me up, asked if I was okay, and let me get back to sleep. There was no stupid 20 questions, that was it. Aerrow on the other hand, didn't seem to know that when I said "I didn't want to talk about it.", I didn't mean, 'lets all talk about everything on a daily basis'.

But fine. If he wanted to play 20 questions, then we're gonna play 20 freaking questions.

But I think I'll avoid him for a tiny bit longer.

* * *

><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

Finn can be so childish sometimes. That wasn't what this was about at all. This was about me trying to figure out why she would go to such great lengths to avoid me, I mean, I know, she had said that she was afraid to hurt me, but she really truly believed it? I just couldn't imagine why or how she thought she could hurt me.

That was all this was. It wasn't some stupid love quarrel. I didn't see her that way anyways, All I wanted to do was talk to her, know more about her, and just be there for her, since I could tell that she was dealing with something very difficult. Just to be there to comfort her or somethin-

No. No. That sounds like flirting, And I am not flirting. I am comforting a FRIEND. That is what this is. Just because I was pretty much losing my mind over not seeing her didn't mean it was-

I mean I was getting worried that she wouldn't talk me or-

No, like I has thinking about her too much-

Okay, sure she's cute, but so is Piper. I've seen quite a few cute girls, doesn't mean I've got a crush on all of them. Doesn't mean that at all. I just happen to be thinking about this cute g-Shaelyn, because she is so interesting. By interesting I mean like...I mean...

Okay. Shaelyn is rude, sarcastic, frustrating, childish, funny, interesting, cute-

NO. NO. NO.

I am a Sky Knight. I'm not supposed to be engaging in relationships, no matter how much I'm attracted to this gi-

ASDFGHJKLASDFGHJKL -

* * *

><p>I was starting to worry that I would not have news on the Storm Hawks. With my talons finally making themselves useful, and my ever expanding army, I am able to continue my plan.<p>

The lack of any remaining civilization was fortunate, and the beasts will work in my favor as well.

She will soon find that she will also be very useful to me. But in due time. For now, I will allow her to be ignorant. Besides, ignorance is bliss, and I owe her that bliss, since she will become a very valuable pawn. I knew this one's strange...affliction would work in my favor. All I had to do was play the cards right.

Which I did. I did it with perfection.

And even with her abilities as a binder, Piper will not be able to react in time. I'm sure of that. Aerrow will be easy to manipulate, as he is weak minded. The rest are none of my concern. They are in unfamiliar territory, and I have been wise.

The pawns are in place, the first move has been calculated. Now I wait until the time is right. Patience is the key.

And while I wait, the issue of my missing commander will soon be fixed as well. Everything will fall into place, and I will re-claim what was once mine. What was taken from me.

And the Storm Hawks will fall.

All in due time.

* * *

><p>WOOH! Another chapter coming up like...right now so yeah. Also, tell me if Aerrow was a little out of character in that last part...I don't know. ._.<p>

You can go ahead and review now.

Like now.

GO.


	16. Sappy romantic sappy stuff

**Aerrow's POV**

I don't think I've ever been so conflicted before. I felt pretty stupid just sitting there arguing with myself over whether or not I liked Shae in that way, when I should have been worrying about the food shortage, or other important Sky Knight duties. This whole thing had spiraled out of control, and it needed to stop. If Shae didn't stop this stupid game, there would be some consequences.

Not like time outs. Because that just sounds dumb.

I saw Stork walking down the hallway towards me as I was mentally arguing with myself, and decided that he was good distraction.

"Hey Stork!" he looked up at me and grimaced.

"No, I don't know where_ that girl_ is." He rolled his eyes as he said this and tried to walk past me. I stepped in his way, pretty much forcing conversation. He sighed and stared back at me.

"So, whats our status?"

"Hungry and annoyed."

"I mean, how far till we reach our destination?"

"A While."

"And...A while is?"

"A while. And it's going to continue to be a while if you don't let me get back to piloting." He said this all in monotone. I narrowed my eyes but left it alone. I stepped out of his way and let him walk past, as he continued to mumble something about Mindworms.

At least Stork was acting normal.

I continued walking down the hallway to find something to do when I reached Junko's room. I decided this would be a good time to check up on him, since he had been out of it for a while now. I'm guessing it was because the lack of food.

I walked in to see Junko asleep, clutching his stuffed animal and sucking his thumb. It was funny how someone so strong could look so innocent. I couldn't help but chuckle as I walked back out into the hallway. Junko needed to the rest anyways, so I didn't want to disturb him.

So lets see, I had checked up on Piper, Finn (Sort of), Stork, and Junko. Now I just had to find Radarr. And after that, maybe I would be thinking more clearly about this whole thing.

"Radarr!" I called out. I usually do that because the little guy has great hearing to begin with, and sound just echoes in these hallways. Sure enough, I could hear a chirp as Radarr rounded the corner in the hallway. That's what I loved about Radarr. No matter what kind of mood the whole team was in, Radarr was always happy to see me. Of course, we had been through a lot together, so it was no wonder why we were close.

He let out another chirp as he ran around me and jumped up onto my back. That was another thing I loved, I could walk around with him just chilling out on my shoulder and it wasn't a bother. In fact, I sometimes felt lost without the little guy there. I realized he was looking at me with an expression that said _'what's up?'_ while I was lost in my thoughts.

"You want to check up on some stuff with me?" I asked him, to which he smiled and nodded.

We were just about to head over to the Hangar bay when Shae came into view. Right then, all those stupid thoughts I was trying to distract myself from resurfaced. Instead of turning around and going the other way though, she started walking straight towards me, like she had actually wanted to find me. Radarr and I gave each other a look, but thankfully, he didn't jump off my shoulder. I knew that when he needed to leave, he would, but for right now, I felt better with him there.

* * *

><p><strong>Shaelyn's POV<strong>

After avoiding Aerrow for a while, I decided that I needed to go look for him. It seemed like he had actually stopped looking for me at this point, which is good. Means we're making progress.

I turned the corner in the hallway to find Aerrow, with Radarr sitting right on his shoulder. The two of them were adorable, not gonna lie. I wish I had a pet that would just chill on my shoulder. They looked like they were already heading my way, which would be the hangar bay, since I had just checked there to see if Aerrow was there, which he wasn't so..you get the picture.

When he saw me, he didn't say anything. He just exchanged a look with Radarr and looked back at me. I couldn't tell what he was feeling right now, he didn't seem to be angry or anything, just like...waiting. I mean, he had a right to be a little irritated with how I was acting, but it was still weird.

When I finally stopped in front of them, he finally raised an eyebrow as if to say "Well?"

"I need to talk to you." He nodded and started to walk past me, which confused the hell out of me until I realized that meant I was supposed to follow.

I wasn't really in the mood for another silent walk of shame, so I tried to make conversation.

"Does he always do that?"

"What?" He glanced back at me.

"Radarr. Does he always sit on your shoulder like that?" Thankfully, he smiled at this and slowed his pace, which allowed me to start walking next to him.

"Yeah." I giggled a bit, since he said this while smiling at Radarr, who was smiling back at him.

"So I'm guessing you like animals?"

"Certain kinds. I've never liked the idea of hurting animals though, no matter what kind they are. I guess...you could say I have a soft spot for them?" He chuckled as he said this.

"Yeah. My parents never let me have animals when I was little. They said they were messy." Radarr shot me a look, but I could tell he was only joking since he continued to smile after that.

"Some are I guess. Depends on how well you take care of them. This one though," He glanced at Radarr," seems to take care of me more."

"Well I think he's done a great job." I said as I smiled at Aerrow. I wasn't flirting with him. This was just friendly conversation.

He only smiled back at me in response.

* * *

><p><strong>Radarr's POV<strong>

I liked this girl. I didn't see why some of the others had such a hard time trusting her...well I could see why Stork did. And I could see that Aerrow had been thinking about her non-stop. I just knew these things, because I payed attention. I mean, when I wasn't eating, I was paying attention to what was up with Aerrow.

The girl was nice to. Nothing seemed off about her, like Lark, and she had saved me that one day, so I was fine with her.

I just sat there on my boy's shoulder while they talked about animals and how much they liked them, and just other small things like that.

When we finally reached the Hangar bay, I decided to stay with them, since Aerrow had been worrying me lately to with all his running around. I wanted to just see how stuff played out, since I could tell the girl was kind of a reason for Aerrow's behavior. Like I said, I just know these things.

Well, that and I wanted to see if this had anything to do with why Shubbz was crying the other day. I hoped Aerrow didn't have anything to do with it. I know he would never intentionally make someone cry. He was way too kind for that.

I realized I was about the slip off of Aerrow's shoulders at this point because of how much I was spacing out. I quickly re-adjusted myself just in time for Shubbz to stop and turn to look at Aerrow, who leaned against his skimmer. I decided it would be easier if I hopped off his shoulder to sit on the instrument panel at the front of the skimmer, just so I could get a better look at the situation.

"Okay..first, I'm sorry I've been avoiding you. I needed time to think about...what happened. Still, it was childish of me to keep that up for so long." Aerrow seemed genuinely surprised by this, but I was more stuck on that one part. What does she mean, '_what happened?_' What did happen?

"It's fine...I know you had your reasons...it was just frustrating for me." Okay, I was not getting anything out of this conversation.

"I know...and I'm really sorry about that...this is just...I've had to think about things differently lately. And the fact that you didn't really believe-"

"I never said I didn't believe you." Believe what? Seriously, what's happening now?

"I don't know, I guess I just thought that from how you acted..." Shubbz looked down at the floor this time.

They both didn't say anything for a long time, even though Aerrow looked as though he wanted to. I decided now would be the best time to leave them alone, since I already felt awkward being there. I didn't even know what was going on anyways. But I'd find out later.

* * *

><p><strong>Shaelyn's POV<strong>

Radarr had randomly decided to leave as we stood there in silence. I guess he finally got tired of sitting there. As he left, I looked back at Aerrow, who had been staring at me as if he was putting things together in his head. He looked at me like that a lot actually. I knew he was trying to make sense of this, so I guess it didn't bother me as much.

"I really do believe you. I'm just...I don't see how just by being around you, I could get hurt?" he had a point. I guess I hadn't really thought about that. But the fact that I had these dreams all the time had to mean that something bad was going to happen if I was near him. I didn't even know who this boy was when I first started to have the nightmares. So I decided to tell him this, I mean maybe it would make him see my point.

He sat there on his skimmer as I explained, and I could see that he was thinking very hard about it. Which was good, because he needed to. Although I felt like he thought about things too much...and sometimes thinking too much can be a bad thing, but it's not like I'm gonna go and try to change that. All I had to be focused on was the conversation.

"Why though? I mean, why you specifically?" If I had known that, I wouldn't be as touchy on the subject, would I?

"I don't know. Maybe it's punishment for something." I threw my hands up in annoyance.

"But you've always been having these nightmares."

"I know, but what other reason is there? If you know why, I would be glad to hear it!" I started to yell, while he just sat there with the same stupid expression. Not anger, not sadness, just expressionless. I didn't mean to start yelling, I just didn't have a very fun time talking about this kind of thing.

"It's not punishment." He said it like it was a fact.

"Oh really? And you know this because..?"

"Have you ever murdered anyone?" What? Okay, I'm confused now.

"No...?"

"Have you ever stolen anything?"

"Well, I've thought about it, but I guess I've never actually stolen something, what does this have to do with-"

"Have you ever hurt anyone?"

"Well, yeah, those talons? And pretty much if I need to defend myself, yeah? But seriously-"

"It's not punishment. If you're telling me the truth, then you have not done anything that would deserve punishment." I stood there in silence as I let his words sink in...he had made a really good point. Maybe it wasn't punishment...I hadn't done anything horrible in my life...but that still didn't explain why. It just eliminated one possibility."I know bad people Shae, and you are not a bad person."

I almost started bawling right there. No one had ever had so much faith in me before, not even my parents. My parents had always thought my nightmares were a way for me to act out and rebel, so they would never listen to me. Now this kid was sitting here listening to my sob story, and he was...he was actually listening. Not like sitting there ignoring me but still listening kind of thing, like he was actively listening to me, and he was trying to help me.

"Why are you so nice to me? I didn't really do anything-"

"For the same reason. You're not a bad person. Which means that you deserve to understand what's happening. And you need someone to listen to you, which is what I'm doing now." With this, he got up and walked towards me until he was right in front of me. Before I could say anything, he took one of the guns out of my belt. "When have you ever used these guns to do something bad?"

"I...never..." He was extremely close to me, but despite my brain screaming at me to back away, my feet stayed planted where they were. He held my gun out to me again, and I picked it up and put it back in my belt. He stayed where he was.

"You are NOT a bad person. You are impulsive, yes, maybe a tiny bit rude, but you never mean harm." He had put his hands on my shoulders now, and I still stood there, silent. What was I going to say? He was staring at me again like he was before, like he was taking notice of every movement I made so that he could add it to his already piling up collection of information about me. Why was he so intent on knowing everything about me? He wasn't looking at me like he was studying me, really, more like...watching. But watching in a way that didn't feel creepy. He was trying to figure me out without having me tell him. And maybe because I hid myself so well, maybe that was why he was frustrated. He was hitting road blocks.

I couldn't look at him when he was staring at me like that, so I looked over to the side and focused on a spot on the wall behind him. "Hey." I suddenly felt a hand on my face as it guided my gaze back to his, where he put his hand on my shoulder again.

"I want to help you because I believe you are worth helping. I know that you aren't comfortable around me because I've seen the real you. I've seen past that barrier you put up." No. He doesn't know me. Just because he's seen me at my weakest times doesn't mean he knows anything about me.

"No, No you don-"

"Yes. I do. The girl I first saw was rude, insensitive, selfish, sarcastic, and well...a bit of a bitch." Okay. I mean, that was pretty accurate. "But the girl I see now is nothing like that. What I see now is a girl who is brave, street-smart, sensitive, kind, and b-..." He trailed off and shook his head...and at this point I didn't care. No one in my life had ever said those things to me. Ever. I was obviously crying at this point, because I'm a major cry baby, but I didn't care. "What I'm saying is that...whatever you thought about yourself before is wrong. You need someone to be there for you, and you deserve to know that someone cares. I care." Yup, that did it. Like freaking rivers on my face now.

I had no idea what I would say to this. What would someone say to this kind of thing? I didn't know how to react to this kind of...this kindness. I guess he was right about me being impulsive, because without even giving it another thought, I threw my arms up and hugged him. I'm pretty sure that was the first time in my life that I had ever hugged someone...I mean, besides my parents but you know what I mean.

I didn't care that he hugged me back, I didn't care that I was crying like a baby, all I was focused on was how safe I felt. And the more I thought about it...maybe...I really did deserve to feel safe?

* * *

><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

To see someone hate themselves when they have done nothing wrong...it just upsets me. Like anything that happens to them is because of them, like it's their fault. I don't understand it. And I wasn't going to let another person go through their life feeling like that.

When she hugged me, I guess I was a little surprised. Another thing I had figured out about her, was that she was very emotional. But that was fine. She had acted like she had never heard those words before, so it was understandable. I had it easy. I had been told many times in my life that I was brave, talented, kind, all that stuff. She had never heard anything like that.

So I found myself holding her again as she cried. I felt like only I would ever get to see her this way, since she guarded herself so well when around others. I don't know how I did it, but I had finished the puzzle. After hunting for that missing piece, I finally put it where it belongs. And now, I knew what to do with the puzzle. I wasn't going to throw it out because I was done with it. I wasn't going to take it apart. No. I was going to keep that puzzle safe.

As I stood there holding her, occasionally whispering "It's okay" into her hair as she sobbed, Piper walked in. Thankfully Shae didn't notice and still held on to me. Piper looked at me with concern, to which I mouthed back "It's fine." She nodded in understanding and walked out.

We stood there for a couple more minutes as she calmed down. I pulled away from her and looked at her eyes, which were red and puffy from crying. "You okay?" I asked her as she sniffled and wiped the tears off her face with her hand.

"Yeah..I...just need time to think." She turned away from me.

Before walking out, I grabbed her hand.

"You're sure?" I asked again. I don't know why I asked again, I just felt like I needed to. She nodded back at me and squeezed my hand once before letting go of it. I turned and walked out of the Hangar bay, leaving Shae there to think things through and calm down some more.

Piper had been waiting for me outside the door. As I walked up to her, she looked at me again with concern.

"Is she okay?"

"She'll be fine."

"What happened?" I decided there that I would tell Piper later. Right now wasn't the best time anyways, and I could tell she had something important to tell me.

"I can tell you later. Is there something you needed to tell me?" She nodded.

"We're there."

* * *

><p>"Has it been delivered?"<p>

The Nightcrawler bowed before speaking. "Yes, Master. The Storm Hawks have arrived right on time."

"Good. Now leave." He bowed once again before turning to leave the room, the door shut tight behind him.

Now all I had to do, was wait until the Storm hawks received their present. Only then would I be able to make my first move. My pawn was proving to be quite helpful, as was planned. She had done well in guiding them right into my hands, without even noticing it.

Soon enough, I would put the pawns where they needed to be, and I could watch the destruction of the Storm Hawks from where I stood.

Soon my commander would be returned to me.

Soon, I would be in power once again.

It was just a matter of time.

And I am a patient woman.

* * *

><p>I hope that wasn't too sappy. Or out of character. Or whatever.<p>

Shouldn't be too terribly long till the next update. I want to thank you guys again for the reviews, they really helped me to pick this back up. :D

Now I want you to review again. DO EEET.

DOOOO

EEEEEEEET


	17. But Shae, you're kind of a wacko to

**Aerrow's POV**

Everyone was already on the bridge, except for Shae, who I'm sure would be okay to go soon. Stork was at the wheel as usual, while Junko and Finn were looking out the window at the...I guess you would call it a food shop? I had walked with Piper there, and she went straight to the map that Shae had given us. I walked over towards Finn and Junko and looked out the window. Before I could even ask where he was, I could feel Radarr scramble up my back to rest on my shoulder again. I gave him a quick smile before looking back out the window.

It wasn't very impressive to tell you the truth. If we didn't know that Shae had gotten food here, we would have thought it was just some run down shack...which is exactly what it looked like. There were a few rusty pans laying outside by the door, while a sign with a picture of an apple, at least that's what I think it was since the paint was peeled, hung over it.

This whole place didn't look too promising. But I had said I trusted Shae, and checking this place out couldn't do to much harm. Besides, we needed food, and Junko was starting to worry me. The big guy couldn't go much longer without eating. Finn and Junko seemed to have the same idea about the place, I could see it in the faces they made. Stork just seemed to stare out at it, not really making any obvious expression, though I'm sure it would have something to do with our doom. Piper was the only one who spoke up.

"I guess...this is it?" She seemed about as confused as I was. Shae had walked in at this time, eyes still a little red and puffy, but she had taken up her normal attitude. I could see the barrier was back in place as she walked over by Piper and looked at the map.

"Yeah. This is it." She straightened up again and looked at me. "Are we going?" I shrugged at this and nodded to Finn and Junko. Piper didn't need encouragement as she followed me out the ship. Stork would usually come with us if he wanted to, but he stayed on the ship. It was better he stayed there though, just in case we needed to make a quick get away. And of course, Radarr had been on my shoulder the whole time. I could tell the little guy was tired, since he wasn't as vocal as usual.

As our feet hit the ground, Shae turned around towards us. She spoke quietly this time. "Alright guys, it would be better if you tried not to say too much. The guy here is a little...wacko. Just let me do the talking, okay?" It was funny how much she sounded like Finn there, but instead of chuckling, I nodded and stayed behind her as we moved closer to the shack. Shae stopped, and instead of knocking on the door, she put her hands up to her mouth to yell.

"Yo Jay!"

I swore I heard some grumbling from inside the shack, and the sound of someone tripping over pots and pans inside. The wooden door swung open, the hinges squealing at the sudden use. Out stepped a thin man that looked like he came straight out of a western movie. Another thing that surprised me, this man looked Atmosian. Which means he would have had to come through a portal to? I would have asked if Shae hadn't told us to keep quiet. Which was probably a good idea to, since this man was already giving us a hard glare. He wasn't very tall, maybe a bit shorter than I was. He looked like he would be in his late 50's, as the large ginger beard on his face had bits of gray, and I could see his gray eyes were baggy and wrinkled, even behind the reading glasses. He wore overalls with numerous holes and patches in them, over a long sleeved shirt that was a dirty red color. His boots looked like they were going to fall apart at any minute, and it looked like he hadn't bothered with the laces in a while. But instead of a cowboy hat, which would have made him look even more comical, he wore a blue bandana, which was surprisingly clean compared to the rest of his clothing.

"Oi! Din' I tell ye to git?" It was probably the most awkward accent I had ever heard. It was almost as if he couldn't decide between a British or a Texan accent.

"Nice to see you to, ya ass!" Shae said back at him, matching his own tone. Interesting way of talking to people, but okay. Jay only smiled.

"That ain't no way fer a lady ta talk! Na, what can I do fer ya?"

"So, these guys right here," She pointed at us,"are the Storm Hawks." The mans eyes widened at this. Shae continued. "And, they've been out of food for quite a while now. Do ya think ya would be able to help?"

"Storm Hawks? Oi! Well, I might have sometin' fer ya. Put er there!" He shot his hand out towards me, grabbing my hand and shaking it wildly. He scowled a bit. "Boy, put some muscle init! Like shakin' a limp noodle!" He laughed at this, though it sounded like he was wheezing. Before I could say anything, he let go of my hand and turned around. Shae nodded at us and started to follow him inside the shack. I guess that was a signal for us to follow to.

Apparently, the shack was much larger than it had looked on the outside. Inside did not look any cleaner though, despite how dark it was. There was a small dusty counter at the front with an empty tip jar, next to some pears which looked surprisingly delicious despite the area around it. The man wheezed some more before flipping on a light switch to reveal what looked like a small restaurant, like ones you would see in the western movies. I was sensing a theme here. On one table though, was a pillow with holes in it. On the floor next to it was a blanket that looked as if it had been tossed aside quickly.

Sleeping on tables. Interesting.

The man stepped behind the counter and scowled at us again. Shae didn't seem to care, and she continued to smile.

"Na, what would ya like?" The side of his mouth twitched up.

"All that ya have!" Shae said with a grin. The man looked like he was about to have a heart attack, and he grabbed his chest as if gasping for breath. I was concerned until the man started to laugh his wheezy laugh again and looked at Shae like she was crazy.

"Ya gotta be pullin ma leg there, little miss! S'gonna cost ye! I ain't given' all ma food with no sorta pay!" He laughed again. I wasn't even sure how much money we had.

"Uh, Shae? We're not really big on money right now." I said quietly, though the man narrowed his eyes as if he had heard. Shae only waved a hand at me.

"I got it covered." It was then that she pulled out a wad of paper money from one of the gun holsters on her belt. I could tell I wasn't the only one who was shocked by this, since I could see Radarr's mouth drop open in the corner of my eye. I would definitely have to ask her later where she got all that money. She pulled out what looked like $100 Atmosian dollars and slapped it on counter, causing dust to fly everywhere. The man looked down at the money and looked back up at Shae with a huge smile. With a small laugh, he picked it up and put it right in the tip jar.

"Oi. Yer a character ya are. Ya folks sit tight. I'll have the stuff loaded up in a jiff!" And with that, he walked through the door at the back of the small restaurant. As the door shut behind him, I turned to look at Shae, who was putting the remaining money back in her holster. In fact, we were all giving her a hard stare. When she noticed this, she raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"What?" Then she seemed to realize what we were thinking about. "Ooohhhh! Yeah, I never really use my money that much, so it piles up, ya know?" I guess that seemed like a pretty good reason. Still a little suspicious, although I'm sure talons got some sort of pay when serving in the army, so maybe Shae had had it left over?

"How many other Atmosians are there?"

"Huh?" I rolled my eyes.

"How many Atmosians are in the Farside besides us?"

"Oh, I don't know. I found this guy by accident. The portal that took me here landed me pretty close to his shack, so I thought I could crash here for a while...until the old man came out flailing a rake at me. But we talked it out, so it was good."

I looked back at Piper this time. I was about the say something to her until I realized what Shae had just said. I turned my head back towards Shae. "Wait...you said the portal was close to here?"

"Yeah? Why-OHHHHHHH."

"So, after you guide us to where Cyclonis is, we can kick her butt, come back here, and find the portal!" I said this, getting even more excited with each word. The fact that home was so close by lifted my spirits, and I could see that everyone else was in a good mood to. Even though I would love to explore the Farside and everything it had to offer, I had started to miss the familiarity of Atmos. And the people of course. Besides, there was always time for exploring later. Always. Finn threw his hands up in the air, distracting me from my thoughts.

"Yeah baby! Things are finally coming together!" Even Junko was feeling better, since he had already eaten all the pears on the counter, and was now laughing with Finn. I couldn't help but smile at my team. Finally, it was starting to feel like it used to. Radarr chirped near my face in delight and I reached up to pet his head. Shae stood there quietly, still smiling.

* * *

><p><strong>Piper's POV<strong>

Finally some good news! Not only were we fixing our food shortage, but we were close to another portal to the Farside. Since this man looked Atmosian as well, that means he could have come from the same portal at an earlier time, which means we were that much closer to being done with our mission. And since we already had a map, this place would be easy to find again. I made a mental note to thank Shaelyn when we got back on the Condor. I don't think any of this would have happened if we hadn't ran into her. Despite the rocky start, she was almost becoming part of the family, in some way.

Jay had come back with about 5 crates of food that looked like they would last us another two years. With Junko's help, we had no problem loading them onto the Condor. After that, I walked back towards the shack to ask the man some questions. I know Shaelyn had told us to be quiet, but the man seemed nice enough. I walked back in to see him washing a dusty table with smile on his face. As the door creaked behind me, he looked up and scowled again. I swallowed before stepping in a little more.

"Oi! All the food is loaded in the Ship, what'r ya doin 'ere still?" He said in a sharp tone. I cleared my throat.

"I was just wondering how you...got all this food?" He suddenly smiled and sat down on the chair at the table he was just cleaning. Aerrow had walked in at this time, probably looking for me, but he didn't say anything.

"Ah hee he, Why I grow it! But most'a tha canned food is from Atmos. That'll keep fer a while!" He laughed hoarsely. "Twas a pleasure doin' business with ya!" I smiled and nodded.

"Also, how did you get here?" He looked confused now. "I mean, how did you find yourself in the Farside?"

"Theres'a glowy thing a way's back, still close ta ere. I'm a guessin' I came through it and got 'ere. I like it 'ere. Don' get much business, but I like the quiet. Easier ta grow ma food ere!" You would think there wasn't much point of charging for food you could grow more of, especially since there weren't many other places to use the money here. But I guess that's what Shaelyn meant she said he was a bit of a 'wacko'.

"Thank you again for the food!" I said to him. He muttered something that sounded like a "You're welcome", so I turned and headed out. Aerrow was there still, leaning on the side of the door. I'm guessing he wanted to ask Jay some questions to, since he didn't move even when I walked out back to the Condor, where I could assume Junko was happily eating. I noticed Radarr was also there to, having jumped off of Aerrow to get some food as well. In fact, it looked like everyone was on the bridge eating.

I should probably get there before it's all gone again.

* * *

><p><strong>Aerrow's POV<strong>

I had wandered back to the shack to tell Piper it was time for us to get going again, but since she was talking to Jay, I didn't rush her. The man sure was interesting. Just as I was about the follow Piper out, the man spoke up.

"I wanna talk te ya, boy." He said, pointing a bony finger at me. I stopped and stood where I was. "Well, git ov'r ere!" He motioned wildly with his hand. I walked over toward the table he was sitting at and sat down across from him. He continued to wipe down the table, despite the fact that it was no use, since the table looked as if it was _from_ western times.

"Yes sir?" I said, being as polite as I could. He only sighed and put down the rag to stare straight at me.

"Na, ya take good care a that girl, ya hear?" Um...what. "She's been havin' a rough time, an' she's spent a night er two ere. She's ma family na, ya hear?" Ah. That's what this was.

"Don't worry sir. I will." I said with a smile. He only narrowed his eyes at me more.

"An' work on tha handshake to." He looked so serious about it, I almost laughed. But I don't think he would have appreciated that. So I only nodded. "Na, git." Nodding again, I stood up and walked towards the door. Before leaving, I looked back at him again.

"Thanks again for all your help."

"Din' I tell ya ta git?"

* * *

><p>Everything was in place. The first move was ready to be made.<p>

My Nightcrawlers wasted no time in storing my present in the food supplies. With the package finally on board, all I have to do is ensure that it is given to the right person.

It was simple. With this new crystal under my control, I could make her nightmares become a reality. And despite the danger, the Sky Knight would not allow her to leave. He is foolish, and she will destroy him. Soon the Storm Hawks will fall apart, and I can give my little pawn what she deserves. Even Piper's special little binding will be of no use when I put the final piece of my plan to action.

Not only simple, but genius. With this single crystal, I could slowly drain the Sky Knight of his being, and simply direct that energy into another entity that was lost to me. Then, when Aerrow makes his last breath, I will wreak havoc on the shattered team. It will be perfect.

Now, it is time for my pawn to do her job.

* * *

><p>Accents are fun.<p>

And so are reviews.

:D


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